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Show IS FliAXCE'S FRIEND. ITALY JOINS THE FRANCO-RUSSIAN COMBINE. A Commercial Treity Concluded WI1WI7 Promises to Shirt the ISalance of Tow er In Kurope France- defeat de-feat in If.vl't Caused lier to Look for All e. London, Nov. 27. France and Italy, after a decade of tariff warfare, have surprised their friends and enemies by concluding a commercial treaty, -which promises to shift the balance of power in Europe, liut for the friendship of the Fnited States, which emboldens Great Britain to comparative indifference indiffer-ence regarding continental combinations, combina-tions, Great Britain would be alarmed at this prospect of Italy deserting the triple alliance and adding her formidable formid-able navy to the Franco-Russian compact, com-pact, which is held to be the inevitable inevit-able result of the union of the two estranged nations. The critics here regard re-gard the treaty as a sequel to the Fa-shoda Fa-shoda incident. France's defeat in Egypt opened her eyes to the necessity of increasing the number of her friends. Therefore she hastened to initiate negotiations with Italy, and will give her weaker neighbor the benefit ben-efit of the minimum tariff, long and vainly sought by the latter. The Italians estimate that under the new arrangement a million hectolitres of heavy southern wiues, which are used in mixing the lighter French wines, will be exported to France, resulting re-sulting in a great impetus to the Italian Ital-ian industry. In return, France expects ex-pects to remove the clangers of having to cope with the Italian navy in the Mediterranean, in the event of a German Ger-man war, and also to nullify Germany's policy of isolating France. Free trade Britain has no subsidies she can offer to retain Italy's support; but in the present position of the world's politics, she is not as solicitous for it as she would have been a year ago. What Great Britain loses in Italyj the Westminster Gazette declares, she gains in the Philippines. Prominent politicians and statesmen express the belief that once embarked in colonial acquisition, the United States will be compelled, as Great Britain has been, to constantly add to her colonies possessions which may be thrown on the market, merely to prevent pre-vent them falling into the hands of her rivals. |
