NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE lassitude of tone which now marks proceedings in the House of Commons was broken on Thursday by a very grave incident. Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett and Mr. Lowther brought up the question of French aggressions on the Niger and the Upper Nile. With respect to the former, the discussion was impeded by some geographical uncertainties, but with respect to the latter the representative of the Foreign Office, Sir E. Grey, read the following weighty sentences which we give textually from the Times' report :—" I will go further and say that, after all I have explained about the claims we consider we have under past agreements and the claims which we consider Egypt may have in the Nile Valley, and adding to that the fact that those claims and the view of the Government with regard to them are fully and clearly known to the French Government, I cannot think it is possible that these rumours deserve credence, because the advance of a French expedition under secret instructions right from the other side of Africa into a territory over which our claims have been known for so long, would be not merely an inconsistent and unexpected act, but it must be perfectly well known to the French Government that it would be an unfriendly act and would be so viewed by England." That means, of course, that while the occupation of Egypt continues, Great Britain will prevent any Power, France included, from reaching any portion of the Nile waterway.
