Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, March 30, 1883.
Alphonse de Rothschild and his cousin Sir Nathaniel came to see me yesterday and told me that they had had an interview with Challemel Lacour on the subject of the proposed sale of the Domain Lands in Egypt. They told me that they found Challemel Lacour extremely sore about the whole Egyptian Question. He appears to have distinctly refused to forward in any way the sale of the Domain and to have alleged as his reason that he would not help to do away with any board of management in which a Frenchman still had a seat; that this would tend to diminish the number of Frenchmen holding influential positions in Egypt, while his object was to increase, or at all events, to maintain the existing number. As indeed might have been foreseen, he was very far from desiring to facilitate any financial or other arrangements required by England. We shall no doubt find the French very inconvenient and embarrassing in Egypt at every turn. I hope they will not be dangerous, unless some disregard of positive international engagements affecting French interests gives the Chauvinists the pretext they are looking out for, and drives the sensible men into a corner, in face of their public declarations and of popular irritation.
I understand Louise Michel has been arrested. The Government may gain ground by showing vigour, but unless it finds means of convincing the officers in the army that it will secure their position against the Radical endeavours to undermine it, things may end in that fatal solution, a military pronunciamento.
The arrest of Louise Michel had taken place as the result of one of the numerous riots which occurred at Paris in the spring of 1883; they were not of much importance, but possessed some significance as being the first appearance of disturbances in the streets since the suppression of the Commune, and were due largely to the distress caused by bad trade, and to artificially stimulated expenditure on building, and other modes of finding employment. The result of the latter expedient was to raise the price of labour artificially and consequently to drive manufactures to other places, thus creating unemployment in Paris itself. In connection with these disturbances there was one singular peculiarity in the attitude of the so-called Conservative classes. Not only the Royalist and Imperial parties, but a considerable number of the richer people who were without any strong political bias, sympathized rather with the people in the streets than with the Government. The upper classes were, in fact, so dissatisfied with the existing state of things that they appeared willing to run the risk of seeing the Republican Government discredited and ultimately overthrown by popular tumult.
The following letter is an admirable illustration of the spirit in which the French viewed all English action in Egypt. Lord Dufferin, in the course of a despatch, had spoken in most appreciative terms of the friendly attitude adopted towards him by M. de Raindre, the French Agent and Consul-General at Cairo, and the British Government naturally supposed that it would be agreeable to the French Government if the despatch were communicated to them. Lord Lyons, however, who was much better acquainted with French opinion, thought otherwise.
Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, May 15, 1883.
I am rather frightened by the praises given by Dufferin in his despatch of April 29th to the 'very correct and loyal attitude of M. de Raindre, the French Agent and Consul-General, and of all the French officials in Egypt.' If this despatch came to the knowledge of the French Government or the French public, it might do de Raindre a serious injury, and lead to the immediate substitution for him of an Agent whose attitude would be more correct in the French sense. I am afraid also that the claim Dufferin makes to have considered the interests of the French in the Egyptian service, however true it is, would provoke a howl of contradiction.
I do not mean to imply that Raindre's conduct has been at variance with his instructions. I don't think it is the policy of the French Government at this moment to get up irritating discussions with us on small everyday matters, either in Egypt or in other parts of the world. The French Foreign Office seems to me to be, on the contrary, more conciliatory than usual in its answers respecting such matters. I mark this with satisfaction because I hope that in this way, provided we can avoid irritating controversies, we may return insensibly to satisfactory relations. But we are far enough from such relations in reality at this moment. Challemel Lacour is not given, as you know, to talk about general diplomatic policy, but others do not hesitate to let us understand that while they are civil about small matters, they are only biding their time till an opportunity comes of opposing us in effect with great ones.
The course of affairs in Tonquin had not tended to restore the French to good humour by providing a compensation for their eclipse in Egypt, and the attempt to indulge in Chauvinism on the cheap had turned out to be a costly and unsatisfactory experiment. Had it not been for the provocations of the foreign press, it is possible that the spirited Colonial Policy with regard to Tonquin, Madagascar, etc., would have been abandoned quietly; but it was found intolerable to endure the daily administration of threats, ridicule, and supercilious advice showered from abroad. As it was, these expeditions did serve one useful purpose, namely, that of temporarily diverting attention from Egypt.