The same year the Germans tried to set the French and British by the
ears over Fashoda. A French expedition came out of French Africa into
the Sudan, where Kitchener's army was in possession after having freed
Egypt from the power of the Madhi's wild Sudanese. French and British
both claimed the same place; and for some years Fashoda was like a red
rag to a bull when mentioned to Frenchmen; for Kitchener had got there
first. Luckily he had fought for France in 1870, spoke French like a
Frenchman, and soon made friends with the French on the spot. More
luckily still, King Edward the Wise went to Paris in 1903, despite the
fears of his Ministers, who did all they could to make him change his
mind, and then, when this failed, to go there as a private person.
They were afraid that memories of Fashoda and of all the anti-British
feeling stirred up by Germans in Europe and America over the Boer War
(1899-1902) would make the French unfriendly. But he went to pay his
respects to France on his accession to the British Throne, showed how
perfectly he understood the French people, said and did exactly the
right thing in the right way; and, before either friends or foes knew
what was happening, had so won the heart of France that French and
British, seeing what friends they might be, began that _Entente
Cordiale_ (good understanding of each other) which our glorious
Alliance in the Great War ought to make us keep forever.
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