“It is now some time that the press of Europe occupies itself of Tunis, and our Government has not deemed it advisable to pay great attention to the most contradictory news published in different countries. The Algerian press, more particularly, has not spared the most lively attacks against Tunisian administration and its functionaries. It has gone so far as to assert that the frequent quarrels which arise between the Arabs on the frontier were, if not the work of our Government, certainly rendered possible by our indifference _vis-à-vis_ of the culprits. Our Government has been able to face without the slightest apprehension, these attacks, being persuaded, as it has always been, that our sentiments of friendship towards France, and the acts by which we have been constantly enabled to manifest them, would have sufficed to justify our Government in the eyes of any one desirous of judging the real situation with impartiality. But now a manifestation of a most exceptional character has taken place, and our Government, fearing that a prolonged silence might misguide public opinion on the matter, has considered that it would be betraying its duty if it did not call the attention of the Government of the Republic to the real state of affairs at Tunis. In fact, by an address which has been officially handed to you, and of which nobody here imagines the contents, a great part of the French colony deplores that its interests are offended, that its rights of property are not respected, that personal security is compromised, and that, finally, the engagements contracted by the Tunisian administration with French subjects are not observed. It therefore asks that the Government of the Republic should be informed of the real state of affairs, and that ready measures, and if need be, energetic ones, should be taken to put an end to the inconvenience of such a state of affairs. “Nothing is easier than to refute one by one all these accusations. No one, in fact, could contend that French citizens do not possess in perfect tranquillity in the Regency their landed property just as is the case with the subjects of every other power. Every one can verify in the clearest way possible that the complete absence of any criminal attempts prove how far the personal safety of foreigners in general run no risk. The countenance which our Government has always given to every enterprise in which Frenchmen are interested attests its desire scrupulously to maintain the engagements taken. In its situation with France and her representatives, our Government believes to have constantly demonstrated its desire to keep into good account the friendship of a powerful and respected neighbour, but it has likewise proved the importance which it attaches to this friendship, forwarding with marked deference, and often anticipating, its desires.