'Italian Proceedings on the African Coast of the Red Sea.' [‎29r] (9/32)

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* Memorandum, 14th May 1880, pp. 19 and
20 .
t Her Majesty’s Ambassador at Constanti
nople reported the issue of this, in a Despatch,
No. 24, dated 8th June 1880. (From Foreign
Office, No. 498.)
t From Foreign Office, 10th June 1880 ;
No. 426.
friendly relations which Italy desired to maintain
with every Power, and that Lord Granville would
assist in putting an end to the opposition, by which
it seemed desired to obstruct “the modest Italian
“ establishment at Assab.”
The reference above quoted to “arbitrary acts
“ calculated to prejudge the questions at issue ”
was understood to apply particularly to the appoint
ment of Mr. Zohrab as Consul at Assab,* under an
exequatur from the Porte.f This measure, it may
here be remarked, did not commend itself to
Mr. Zohrab himself. He, writing on the 24th April
1880, observed with regard to it:—^
“ The wording of my appointment to Assab Bay
“ leads me to believe that Her Majesty’s Govem-
“ ment suppose that Egyptian authorities are
“ resident there. Such, however, not being the
“ case, could the presence, temporary or otherwise,
“ of a locally unrecognized British Consul oppose
“ any barrier to the intentions of Italy ? I ap-
“ prebend not; for, with the Italians to support
“ him, Sultan B urban would turn a deaf ear to
“ advice, protests, or threats, and the Consul would
“ find himself nothing more nor less than a
“ nonentity, houseless, unheeded, uncared for. but
“ suspected and disliked. Hid his presence produce
“ no further baneful results the harm would not be
“ great and might be overcome, but I apprehend
“ the issue would be much more serious. Armed
“ with the credentials of an unacknowledged and
“ hated authority, he would be regarded as charged
“ to compel submission to that authority, and that
“ England was determined to place the people
“ under the hated yoke; the result would probably
“ be the creation of an intensely hostile feeling
“ towards England, which would culminate, I fear,
“ in raising at an inopportune moment grave
“ political questions between England, Italy, and
“ Egypt. These difficulties and dangers can, I
“ venture to suggest, only be obviated by the
“ Khedive sending a force to Assab Bay and
“ establishing his supremacy there. Till this is
“ done, nothing, I believe, can result from the
“ presence of a British Consul but intrigue and
“ mischief; for, as the question now stands, it
“ would be the Consul who would have to show,
“ in a country where there is not a shadow of
“ Egyptian authority, that the Khedive is master.”
§ From Foreign Office, 26th May 1880;
No. 382.
|| From Foreign Office, 27th August 1881 ;
No. 622.
General Menabrea’s Note was not at once replied
to, Lord Granville, who had assumed office only
a few weeks before, desiring to inform himself
more fully of the facts of the case and their different
bearings. §
Concurrently there was correspondence on the
subject between the Italian and Egyptian Govern
ments.
On the 25th April 1880, || Moustapha Eehmy
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, ad
dressed a note to M. de Martino, the Italian Agent
in Egypt, referring to what had passed in 1870 in
respect to the Rubattino purchase of land at Assab,
6005. C