NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Daily Chronicle publishes what its conductors believe to be an " unquestionably " accurate account of the Treaty of Alliance between France and Russia. The document was signed in December, 1893, after the visit of the Russian Fleet to Toulon, and it is to last as long as the Triple Alliance exists. It is purely defensive, and could not be quoted if France desired to tear up the Treaty of Frankfort and regain her provinces. The idea of defence included in it is, however, very wide, as France appealed successfully to the Treaty when she imagined that Great Britain was about to in- vade Morocco—the scare was without foundation—and Russia appealed to it successfully to obtain aid in resisting Japan. There could not, we imagine, be an appeal to it to upset the status quo in Egypt, but there could be, conceivably, in regard to an expedition to Khartoum. The Daily Chronicle naturally makes much of a revelation which will greatly annoy the French Foreign Office, but we do not see that it adds greatly to general information. The Treaty was well known to be purely defensive, and to be fatal until modified to the French hope of revenge. We do not see that it is in any way fatal to the idea that Great Britain should come to an understanding with Russia or even, if events in Morocco made that possible, to an alliance with France. Morocco in hand would be worth more to France than any Egypt in the bush ever could be.
