"A Paris morning paper, the _Journal_, plays the _rôle_ of introducer of the new Counany Ambassador. This Ambassador is a certain M. Brezet, who comes to France, in spite of the sentence of the arbitral tribunal, as President of a State which is described by all competent authorities as a _pseudo_-republic, summarily wiped off the map as an independent State. M. Brezet, moreover, is a Parisian who has served, it is said, in the French forces in Guiana. He is now for the second time enjoying the confidence of the Counanians, strong in the prestige won by his success in having repulsed the Brazilians who sought dutifully to carry out the terms of the clauses of the Berne Decree. 'After having prepared the military and administrative reorganization of Counany, he has come on a mission to Europe to defend the interests entrusted to him.' Such is the story reported by the _Journal_.
"Counany, now described as the vast territory between the Amazon and the two Guianas, is not merely a relatively accessible stretch of coast-line and _Hinterland_ for a certain enterprising European colonial Power, which has already prospected in Brazil, Venezuela, and the unknown world between the Amazon and the Orinoco. Counany is likewise on the high road of sea communication between the south of South America and the eventual link between the Atlantic and the Pacific, known as the Panama Canal. The Counany coast-line is a covetable strip of the South American coast which at more favourable moments might even distract our attention from Morocco."
In 1902, in an inn on the German side of the German-French frontier, an altercation arises between Franz Heller, an Austrian subject, and a Frenchman. They leave the inn together, still quarrelling. The Frenchman hits Heller with his stick and runs away across the frontier. Heller, however, draws a revolver and shoots the Frenchman dead. The French government demands his extradition for murder.
The following appeared in the _Times_ of Feb. 22nd, 1908, dated Sofia, Feb. 21st:
"A diplomatic rupture between Servia and Montenegro is threatened. The Servian Minister has been instructed to leave Cettigne should satisfaction not be accorded for certain injurious observations made by M. Tomanovich, the Montenegrin Premier, in the course of a recent speech. Relations between the two dynasties and countries have long been strained, and the quarrel has become acute since the refusal of the Servian Government to take the measures demanded by Montenegro against refugees and others accused of participation in the recent plot against the life of Prince Nicholas."