The Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1940. The Field of Battle Extends

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 228, 26 September 1940, Page 6

The Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1940. The Field of Battle Extends

That the chessboard of the battle for the preservation of Christian democracy is not exhausted of moves is illustrated by the naval action at the harbour of Dakar, which is the capital of French West Africa. With the Mediterranean and Red Sea coastline of Northern Africa aflame with hostilities, the battle has been extended to the west coast, where French authority, acknowledging the rule of the Vichy Government, the instrument of German Nazism, seek to withstand the choice of the populace to join up with General de Gaulle’s Free France.

Dakar is located under the shelter of a peninsula immediately south of Cape Verde on the Bay of Goree and is sheltered by the island of Gorcc on which, till after the middle of the nineteenth century, the main French settlement ivas located. The port has a safe anchorage for large vessels and possesses commercial docks, a naval dock, an arsenal, together with admirable quay and railway facilities. The terminus of railways to St. Louis and to the interior, the port commands the trade of the Upper Senegal and the Middle Niger, and is an important calling place for shipping.

French occupation and development of West Africa recalls that the continent was drawn into the life of Europe only because it offered harbours on the route to India, and that of Dakar formed one of the main ports of call. It also offered a source of supply of rough labour needed in tropical colonies and a scanty trade in such commodities as palm-oil and gold dust. France became active and ambitious towards Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century, establishing her power first in Algeria and then along the Senegal to the source of the Niger. The many great explorers had done much to answer the riddles concerning the interior of Africa and their Work had solved many of the geographical problems.

While England commenced to take a particular interest in Egypt, the French concentrated on West Africa, while Germany, hitherto scorning any ideas of colonial expansion, accepted the bidding of the' prophets of colonisation and entered the field at the heels of German missionaries. These movements brought England to a realisation of what she was missing and she hastened to extend her sovereignty over the mouths of the Niger and Oil rivers, after Togoland and the Cameroons had been annexed by Germany.

An international conference in Berlin in 1884 dealt with all African questions and all agreed to suppress the slave trade. This conference declared occupation of territory to be valid only when effective, and defined a sphere of influence as an area within which some one Power possessed a priority of claim. This preliminary agreement facilitated very much the peaceful settlement of the subsequent territorial controversies. Germany’s sphere of influence was liquidated in the Great War, while that of England was extended, and France also secured a greater interest.

While the slave trade was suppressed, domestic slavery, an ancient African institution, still persists in certain areas, although it is vigorously discouraged in lands under direct British Government. Transformation of native economy was not attempted because of insurmountable difficulties, but economic development has persisted. The Great AVar witnessed an extension of the efforts to put down domestic slavery, but it has been encouraged by the Italians in Abyssinia, where the authorities have been guilty of permitting unprintable atrocities.

Cut off from all support, the representatives of the Vichy Government at Dakar will hardly be able to hold out against the following of General de Gaulle, backed as it is by British naval strength. Possession of the port and the French AVest African territory generally will prove of very material aid to England in the fight against the Libyan army of Italy.