Suez Page #6

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with Prussia over Alsace and Lorraine.

And Bismarck evidently intends

to have them

even if it means war.

You see, my dear,

France needs England's friendship

And England will not stand for the Canal.

But it's Ferdinand's.

He's building the Canal.

Even Napoleon cannot stop him.

You forget that he's an emperor.

With one stroke of the pen

he can cut off

every sou of the Canal's

financial backing.

But he's been working all this time.

They must let him finish it.

They cannot do this.

I won't let them.

I'm afraid there's very little

that you or I

or anyone else can do

when Prussia rattles the saber.

Your Majesty.

The Suez Canal is far too important

to France

and to the world to be used

as just a political pawn.

I urge upon you most earnestly

to reconsider your action.

And let me finish this great project.

And embark upon a war with Prussia

without the support

or at least the neutrality of England?

Why is there any need for war

if Your Majesty

sincerely desires peace?

Peace without honor?

Can I disregard my destiny?

The motto of the Bonaparts is still

Glory for France.

Your Majesty,

the officials have arrived.

I'm sorry, I can give you no more time.

Gentlemen.

You see?

Week after week to watch ambition

undermine him,

destroy his balance and his judgment.

He wants war, glory.

That's all he thinks of now.

Now I know where it will end.

Finish the Empire.

What will you do if he...

If he loses?

And the Empire falls?

Why, stay with him, of course.

He'll need me then.

You see, Ferdinand,

once I made a choice.

Maybe it was a mistake but...

it was my choice.

And you've made my problem yours.

And failed you.

Yes, Ferdinand, I failed.

But you won't.

You'll win.

Not through Louis' help or mine...

but through your on efforts.

I don't know how, but...

somehow you'll do it.

Do you have so much faith in me?

Why, I've never lost it.

And I never will.

Goodbye, Ferdinand.

Toni.

Always when I need you.

I almost didn't know you.

Is that a compliment?

You're lovely.

That's the first time you ever told me.

Oh, I brought a friend of yours.

Ren.

So you see...

I've found my niches of pamphleteer

for democracy.

True, I haven't as great a reading public

as Rousseau had, but

I manage. And Toni here

has been a tremendous help.

Except with the spelling.

You know, she edits everything I write.

If I didn't, you'd go back to prison.

But from now on...

we're going to be together

the three of us, hm?

Where you go, we'll go.

I'm leaving for England tomorrow.

England? Well, don't you think first

a long rest...

Rest?

You are going to stay right here

and let Ren and me take care of you.

The only thing that stands in my way now

is the English government.

My one chance is to go there

before it's too late.

Explain it to them.

Break down their opposition.

I must go there at once

and try to see the Prime Minister.

I'm sorry, Mr de Lesseps.

I cannot support a project that is

clearly opposed

to the best interests of England.

But I assure you it will be

of the greatest benefit to England.

Many of your own countrymen

are convinced of this.

Men of vision who can see beyond

mere national boundaries.

I disagree with you, sir, completely.

In fact, at this very time,

we are debating in Parliament

this insane policy

of reckless expansion for England.

Englishmen should keep their eyes on their own boundaries

not gaze moonstruck on foreign shores

and fly-by-night foreign schemes

like yours.

I'm sorry, Mr de Lesseps.

I bid you good afternoon, sir.

The conduct of our colonial policy

has been criticized by those

who have placed

the welfare and safety of our colonies

above the welfare and safety of England

They would risk their heads

to save their limbs.

Our first duty is to the mother country.

England.

I would not trade the meanest

English county

for all our colonial possessions.

The path of headlong expansion

is the path to disaster.

Mr Speaker, sir.

You have just heard the Prime Minister

most ably and eloquently

urge your support

of the government's colonial policy.

To his noble bellow

I wish to add my own small voice.

The Prime Minister has not always

enjoyed my support, no.

In fact, there have been times when

I've been forced

to to take issue with him.

Who is that?

It's the leader of opposition.

Mr Disraeli.

But now, strangely enough,

I find myself pleading his cause.

What's he up to?

Some trickery, I wager.

By all means support this policy.

By all means rally round

the Prime Minister.

By all means follow cheerfully

and unquestioningly his leadership.

All of you.

Who are as anxious as he

to see England reduced

to the standing of a third-rate power.

Mr Disraeli's carriage.

Mr Disraeli, I must speak to you.

It's very important.

And who are you?

Ferdinand de Lesseps.

Pray get in.

The greatest danger is in delay.

I had a message this morning from

Said Pacha, the Viceroy.

The desert works fast.

Unless we can get our dredges going

within the next few months

all the years of work,

all the millions we've spent

wil be a total loss to us.

To say nothing of a far greater loss

to the world.

And why have you come to me?

Because England needs the Suez Canal.

Because soon you're going to have

a general election

but above all,

because you represent progressive and

intelligent English opinion.

And think what my enemies will say.

Dizzy, the internationalist.

Dizzy, the poseur.

Dizzy, the foreigner, as they say...

conspiring with a Frenchman

in some evil-smelling foreign plot

to undermine British institutions.

Then you will do it.

Of course I'll do it.

You've brought me a whiff of hope,

monsieur.

Frankly my party's been the underdog

in this election.

We haven't expected to get

a majority in the House.

But I feel you've given me

an issue here

which dramatizes my whole stand.

Strikes at the very heart

of the government's do-nothing,

thumb-twiddling policy.

They see an England that stretches

only from Land's End to John o'Groats,

from Wales to Norfolk

A tiny island off the coast of France.

I see an England flung around

the globe.

And you, a Frenchman,

are doing the work

England should be doing

to help create this greater England.

Monsieur, if you're willing to take

a sporting chance

go back to Egypt

keep up your work,

at least try and save

what you've already done.

Raise the money somehow.

I give you my solemn promise

that if my party is returned

at this election

I'll do everything in my power

to place England on your side.

Come, let's have some supper.

Four million piastras, Your Highness.

Your Highness, isn't this the Kompor ruby?

Yes.

It was given my father by the Sultan

for defeating the Wahabi in the Arabian Campaign.

But isn't it enough for you

to empty your treasury?

I know how much these heirlooms

mean to you.

I wish you wouldn't, Said.

Oh, no, my friend.

Have you forgotten that sand

is filling the Canal?

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