FRENCH CLAIMS IN AFRICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2309, 2 June 1898, Page 13

FRENCH CLAIMS IN AFRICA.

PAEIS, May 23.

Le Temps states tbat France will only concede Great Britain's claim to Bouasa, in the Kingdom of Borgu, West Africa, on condition that such compensation is granted as will facilitate the fall development of French, commerce and permit Francs deriving benefit from the Berlin Treaty.

The French Embassy in Morocco insists upon the cession of the Tuat group cf oases in Western Sahara.

May 29

The Politique Colonial states that the French expedition to the Upper Nile regions under the Marquis de Bonchamp has reached the Nile and hoisted the Abyssinian flag.

London. May 24.

The Marquis of Salisbury ba« declined to discuss the Niger question whilst the deliberations af the commission for the delimitation of British and French territory are in progress. The Standard denies the report that the commission has been signed,, and expresses its doubts respecting the reassuring statements published by the Paris press.

May 27,

Persistent reports are current that the Niger difficulty has been settled, and that France has obtained two forts on the Middle Niger.

The oases in the S&hara occur in greatest number along the southern face of the Atlas and the Algerian mountains, on the northern side of the Ahaggar plateau, and. along certain dt finite lines, the chief of which extend between Murzuk in Tripoli and Lake Tchad, the Igharghar and Sokoto by way of Air, the Igharghar and the bend of the Niger by way of Timissao, Morocco and Cairo by way of Tafilet, Tuat (Ainsalah) and Ghadames, a&d Morocco and Timbuctoo by way of Tenduf and Taudeni These lines of oases mark the great caravan routes between the Central Soudan States and the Mediterranean. By the agreement of 1890 between Britain andJFrance the whole of the Sahara, except the west coaafc (which is claimed by Morocco and Spain and Britain) and the extreme east, was acknowledged to be within the French sphere of influence France proposes to unite her possessions on the Senegal and Niger with Algeria and Tunis, and the Taat oases are probably required for the proposed trans-Saharan rail-, way.

The French had two expeditions in the Upper Nile regions with the intention evidently of cutting off British communication between Khartoum and tha lakes. The Liotard March&nd expedition was advancing from Semio into the basin of the Nile, bat it wag recently reported that this expedition had been cut to pieces by the Dinkas, an aggressive and conquering race in the Upper Nile. The Marquis de Bonchamp and his expedition were advancing into the Nile basin from the direction of Abyssinia, with the object of, in the iirsb place, reviving the old and almost forgotten claim of Abyssinia to a large slice of tha Upper Nile regions.

NiMiro and Blair's novelties of plants* seeds, &c, as advertised in another, column, should be crown in every garden.