The purchase of the Khedive's Suez Canal shares by Disraeli
in 1875 is one of the famous episodes on which light is thrown by the new volume of the Documents Diplomatiques Francais (1871-1914) now being issued by the French Foreign Office (Paris : A. Costes) to illustrate pre-War diplomacy. A French banker in Egypt had negotiated a loan to the Khedive of 85 million francs at 18 per cent. on the security of the shares, but his Paris backers did not ratify this highly advan- tageous bargain, thinking to do still better. Disraeli, hearing of the matter from Greenwood, promptly bought the shares through the Rothschilds for £4,000,000. The French Govern- ment, it is evident from the despatches, was furious, but found no support from other Powers. Lord Derby told the French Ambassador that we were fully entitled to take part in the control of the highway to India, and reminded him that France still held the majority of the shares. The French Minister, however, regarded this " absolutely unforeseen action " on our part as a possible prelude to occupation : he was perhaps not far wrong. Much of the volume, the second in the first series of this monumental work, is necessarily con- cerned with the Near Eastern crisis of 1876-8 and the Berlin Congress. * * * *
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