ON BRITAIN'S SIDE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 51, 28 August 1940, Page 9

ON BRITAIN'S SIDE

French Colony of Chad

Pledge by Churchill

Economic Assistance

LONDON, August 27. The forces of free Frenchmen led by General de Gaulle have received an important addition to their strength. General de Gaulle announced in a broadcast that the French colony of 'Chad has decided to carry on the fight in association with the armed forces under General de Gaulle.

The territory, which is in north-east Africa, is the largest part of French Equatorial Africa, with a population of more than 1,000,000 and an area of 480,000 square miles.

Chad will benefit from a new pledge given to General de Gaulle in a letter by Mr. Churchill, who says that the British Government is prepared to> extend economic assistance on a scale similar ta that wMch would be given in comparable circumstances to colonies of the British Empire. Plans are now being worked out for making such assistance effective.

Denning and developing the promise of co-operation given earlier on behalf of Britain, Mr. Churchill gives an assurance in his letter that until an independent and constitutional authority has been established on French soil, the British Government will do everything in its power to promote the economic operation, of all French colonies, provided that they stand hy the alliance, and will also foster their trade.

4n announcing the decision of the: colony, General de Gaulle read a proclamation issued at the capital of Chad:, in which the Governor and military commander explained that when the armistice was signed they submitted; with grief, but in a spirit of discipline, but in the last two months they had seen that the armistice did more than compel France to give up the struggle. Because of what France had been obliged to do under the armistice, they had decided to carry on the fight.

General de Gaulle said that he had every reason to think that the example of Chad would be followed and that fighting France would be reconstituted and its armed forces increased. He also had reason to affirm that France, taking her place in the line of battle, would be present at the victory.

Chad, in French Equatorial Africa, became a separate colony in March 1920. Formerly it was a dependency of the Übangi-Shari Colony, one of

the three colonies which make up French Equatorial Africa. That region, used to enjoy the name of the French Congo until this was changed in 1910. In 1936 the native population of Chad was 1,400,000, the white population less than 600. Its imports amounted Ito 11,000,000 francs in 1936, and its exports to 17,000,000 francs. The capital is Fort Lamy, which is on the western border, and there are radio stations dotted about over the territory, connecting Fort Lamy with Ati, Faya, and Mayo. There is also a telegraph line linking the capital with the Bangui region. An important part of the territory i s Bagirmi, where rubber is found, millet and sesame cultivated, and cotton grown to a considerable extent. Fort Lamy, originally, as its name suggests, purely a military post, had a population of 10,000 in 1926. Trade is chiefly with British Nigeria and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which < Chad adjoins, the traffic passing through Wadai. There is& an ancient caravan route through Kanem and across the Sahara to Tripoli (Libya), providing a method of attack in that ' direction. The population is mixed, with negroid peoples predominating, and many pastoral Fula and Arabs. . The true inhabitants are a vigorous, ■ well-formed native race of Negroid-" Arab blood.