The British Government has nailed its colours to the mast
in the matter of Fashoda. It has published the despatches, thus appealing to its own constituency and the whole world. It appears from these documents that Lord Salisbury instructed Sir E. Monson, British Ambassador in Paris, to represent to M. Delcasse, Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the right of the Egyptian and British Governments to the Valley of the Nile could not be discussed. So late as -October 3rd Lord Salisbury, while agreeing to forward a French despatch to M. Marchand, instructed Sir E. Monson in the following terms : "You should state to M. Delouse that the fact of her Majesty's Government having complied with his Excellency's request in regard to the transmission of the message does not imply the slightest modification of the views previously expressed by them. You should add that, whether in times of Egyptian or Dervish dominion, -the region in which M. Marchand was found has never been without an owner, and that, in the view of her Majesty's Government, his expedition into it with an escort of one hundred Senegalese troops has no political effect, nor can any political significance be attached to it." The "previously ex- pressed views" were that "by the recent military events all the territories which were subject to the Khalifa passed by -right of conquest to the British and Egyptian Governments," and "Her Majesty's Government do not consider this right Open to discussion."
