3rd July.
Styce Lord Palmerston relinquished the direction of our Foreign Affairs no combination of interests has worked so harmoniously and beneficially for England as the French alliance, which was the corner-stone of that great statesm=n's policy. In China the results of this alliance were most evidently advantageous to both nations and gave no after-taste of jealousy or recrimination such as generally follows the alliances of European powers for a specific object.
The first contingent of troops supplied by France for the China expedition of 1900 were not favourable presentatives of the French army. Che enervating climate of Tongking had sapped their health and reduced their military value. In is all the more creditable to the French Government that they sent in the pressing hour of need the first troops they could lay their hands on in the general interest, and regardless of the mere ige of their own arms. The de-of the Peitang Cathedral in Peking by a handful of French and other marines remains perhaps the most brilliant feat of arms of the whole campaign.
Since the arrival of the French expeditionary corps the allied command ders have had the opportunity of observing the high state of efficiency to which the Republic has brought her numerous army. Throughout the winter no troops in China were better fed, quartered, and clothed than the French. The business-like methods of their staff and the pleasant courtesy with which they worked in combination with their allies will ever be remembered. With one notable exception, due probably to want of tact on both sides, the French and British officers and troops have lived on the most friendly and confidential terms in all the combined garrisons of North China; and when it is remembered how apt soldiers are to get. out of hand and indulge in petty rioting under such circumstances and in such a trying period of inaction, the fact is much to their credit. The two squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique were the admiration of every cavalry officer who beheld them, and the sturdy little Zouaves in their picturesque uniforms were also noticeable among the allied troops for their serviceable and really warlike appearance.
The only movement of troops on a considerable scale executed by the French was the expedition to the Great Wall at the end of April in conjunction with the Germans from Paotingfu. The German staff officers jon this occasion were unanimous in their praise both of the dashing and high-spirited General Bailloud and of his brigade. The work both of the staff and troops was exceptionally good and the marching performances of the Infantry over a difficult mountain country above the average. Had political' considerations not intervened we should have seen severe chastisement dealt out for the massacres of last summer, and the capital of Shansi in the hands of the allies a few days after they drove the' main force of the Chinese in rapid flight over the Great Wall.
tething in international politics is permanent. It may easily happen that ere long the two great Powers of Western Europe find thems: more in alliance, since their interests are almost everywhere identical, and their quarrels and jealousies are in comparison petty and unessential. If such an alliance took place it would be of so formidable a nature that no other combination of Powers to-day could withstand its wishes in Europe or beyond the seas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.