SAHARA TRIBESMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21735, 29 August 1932, Page 7

SAHARA TRIBESMEN

FRENCH PATROL AMBUSHED HEAVY CASUALTY LIST. PARIS, August 27. (Received August 28, at 5.5 p.m.) Restless tribesmen ambushed a French camel detachment in the western Sahara. Six officers and 50 native soldiers were killed, one of the officers being Lieutenant Patrick MacMahon, a grandson of the famous marshal. Marshal MacMahon, who was descended from an Irish Jacobite family, was bom in 1808. Entering the army he saw much service in Algeria, especially distinguishing himself at the storming of Constantine in 1837. He commanded the division that stormed the Malakoff at Sebastopol in 1855, and took a conspicuous part against the Kabyles in Algeria (1857-58) and in the Italian campaign in 1859, winning a marshal’s baton and the dignity of Duke of Magenta for the decisive part which he took in the battle of that name/ In the Franco-Prussian war, of 1870-71 he had command of the first army corps, but was defeated at Worth and wounded and captured at Sedan. In 1873 he was elected President of the Republic for a period of seven years with some hope that through him the restoration of the Bourbons might be secured. Although he pursued an aggressive policy he gradually became estranged from the Republicans, and, rather than dismiss some of his old comrades, he preferred to resign, which he did in January, 1879. He afterwards lived in retirement, and died in October, 1893.