NORTHERN AFRICA

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LII, Issue 8631, 11 July 1924, Page 2

NORTHERN AFRICA

FRANCE AND HER “BLACK EMPIRE.*’ "The French General Stall have nccntly taken a most important decision "which is the complement of the measures for maintenance- of a black army. For years Frenchmen have debated several schemes lot building a railway from the* French North Africa provinces to the rivers of West Africa. This is a matter cf some 2000 miles. Whatever rntite was chosen, such a line must run across the vast tract of the Sahara, Desert. It could have no commercial justification unless minerals were found in large quantities. and of that there is nc sign." writes W. P. Crczier, in the “New Republic."

‘ Ye; the War Council and the Supreme Council of National Defence have now sanctioned the 1 construction of the liirn from the Algerian railways through the 1 centre of the Sahara to the upper waters of the Niger. There it would he linked on to the railway lines in Senega] and the other provinces which are already built or building. It can have nc other object than to carrv the West African armv northwards as an alternative to the long and dangerous sea. rente which follows the African coast and passes through the narrows at Gibraltar. That 130,000 African blacks actualb' fought in France is a hard fact. That 65,000 cf them are now stationed in Europe and are tc be a. perm a unit part of the European establishment ; that the existing array scheme provides for a three years’ native service under which between half and three-quarter's of a million blacks will be available; that ill'- machinery will be instantly ready for training several millions mere: that the proposed railway is to be made for no other purpose 1 than to carrv these forces to France; and that France, pursuing peace as a barely suppressed form cf war, is being inexorably driven t$ augment her man-power by anv means, however deplorable —•■all these are bard facts and not rhetoric. It is not unlikely that this, question will be In a, few 1 years become one of the most disturbing elements in European politics. The neighbours of France will not contentedly contemplate the use against them of hordes cf AfricansThey will disapprove a method which' they believe is degrading to the self-respect of Europe* and of the whiter man.” *