rnational law, they were
right. The power to will away that district lay with the Sultan, the
Khedive's claims having practically lapsed. Germany, it is true, agreed
not to contest the annexation of Uganda, but France did contest it.

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 That compact was accordingly withdrawn, and on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 r