NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MUCH excitement has been caused in France during the week by the statement that Hakki Pasha, the Turkish Grand Vizier (who has steadily refused to accept the terms which the French Government impose as the condition of admitting any Turkish loan to quotation on the Bourse), had made arrangements for a loan with Sir Ernest Cassel. Directly this statement was made there was an outburst of indignation in the French newspapers. It was said that the Young Turks were levying blackmail on the French Govern- ment in order to get a loan on easier terms than the safe- guarding of French interests warranted, and that the group of financiers for whom Sir Ernest Cassel acts were guilty of an unfriendly act towards France. We understand, however, that Sir Ernest Cassel's negotiations did not reach such a definite point as was supposed, and of course his negotiations have no kind of official support from the British Government. We have discussed the whole affair elsewhere. Hero we will only say that while we sympathise in certain respects with the Turkish point of view, and while we dislike very much the mingling of diplomacy and com- mercial enterprise which is familiar in France as well as in Germany, we hold that the one great object of Great Britain should be to preserve the policy of the Triple Entente. There should be no suspicion of conflict between French and British interests in South-Eastern Europe.
