- Edward Monson
Sir Edward Monson (1841 - 1908) was a British diplomat.
He entered the diplomatic service in 1856, and served as diplomatic agent at Ragusa (then part of
Austria-Hungary in the 1870s.He then served inCopenhagen ,Denmark , and was British Minister toAthens ,Greece in the 1880s.In 1888 Queen Victoria appointed him arbitrator in the
Carlos Butterfield claim between an American shipping company and the government of Denmark. Monson reviewed the legal statements of both sides and made his recommendations to the Queen, who decided in favour of Denmark, settling a dispute that had lasted 30 years.Monson served as British
Ambassador toFrance from 1896 to 1905. Relations between the two countries where rather strained, and this was not helped when Monson made a speech in 1897, in which he accused the French officials and press of anti-British bias. The French responded with predictable outrage and demanded his recall. Despite this Monson was able to procure a convention with the French Foreign Ministry in June 1898 that settled the vexed question ofNigeria n boundaries, and later worked to repairAnglo-French relations after theFashoda incident of September 1898.His most significant role was in the signing of the 1904 Anglo-French
Entente Cordiale , which settled outstanding disputes in West Africa, Siam,Madagascar , theNew Hebrides and over Newfoundland fishing rights. Above all, it allowed Britain a free hand inEgypt in return forgiving France a free hand inMorocco .ources
* [http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/parisemb.pdf FCO Analysis of the Role of the Paris Embassy 1850-1918 (PDF)]
* [http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Autobiography-of-a-Journalist-Volumex10663.html The Autobiography of a Journalist by William James Stillman]
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbum:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbum16082div207)) Life story of Rasmus B. Anderson (Library of Congress Online)]
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