The Republic also entered a protest against the Anglo-Congolese Convention of May 12, 1894, whereby, in return for the acquisition of the right bank of the Upper Nile, England ceded to the Congo Free State the left bank[419].  That compact was accordingly withdrawn, and on August 14, 1894, France secured from the Free State the recognition of her claims to the left bank of the Nile with the exception of the Lado district below the Albert Nyanza.  This action on the part of France implied a desire on her part to appropriate these lands, and to contest the British claim to the right bank.  In regard to law, she was justified in so doing; and had she, acting as the mandatory of the Sultan, sent an expedition from the Congo to the Upper Nile, her conduct in proclaiming a Turco-Frankish condominium would have been unexceptionable.  That of Britain was open to question, seeing that we practically ignored the Sultan[420] and acted (so far as is known) on our own initiative in reversing the policy of abandonment officially announced in May 1885.  From the standpoint of equity, however, the Khedive had the first claim to the territories then given up under stress of circumstances; and the Power that helped him to regain the heritage of his sires obviously had a strong claim to consideration so long as it acted with the full consent of that potentate.

[Footnote 419:  Parl.  Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), pp. 13-14.]

[Footnote 420:  The Earl of Kimberley’s reply of Aug. 14, 1894, to M. Hanotaux, is very weak on this topic.  Parl.  Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), pp. 14-15.]

The British Cabinet, that of Lord Rosebery, frankly proclaimed its determination to champion the claims of the Khedive against all comers, Sir Edward Grey declaring officially in the debate of March 28, 1895, that the despatch of a French expedition to the Upper Nile would be “an unfriendly act[421].”  We know now, through the revelations made by Colonel Marchand in the Matin of June 20, 1905, that in June 1895 he had pressed the French Government to intervene in that quarter; but it did little, relying (so M. de Freycinet states) on the compact of August 14, 1894, and not, apparently, on any mandate from the Sultan.  If so, it had less right to intervene than the British Government had in virtue of its close connection with the Khedive.  As a matter of fact, both Powers lacked an authoritative mandate and acted in accordance with their own interests.  It is therefore futile to appeal to law, as M. de Freycinet has done.

[Footnote 421:  Ibid. p. 18.]

It remained to see which of the two would act the more efficiently.  M. Marchand states that his plan of action was approved by the French Minister for the Colonies, M. Berthelot, on November 16, 1895; but little came of it until the news of the preparations for the Anglo-Egyptian Expedition reached Paris.  It would be interesting to hear what Lord Rosebery and Sir Edward Grey would say to this.  For the