MUCH BOMBARDED COAST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 51, 14 October 1911, Page 3

MUCH BOMBARDED COAST.

NAVAL OPERATIONS AGAINST , NORTH'-AFRICA. Probably no coast in the world can show such a record in respect to naval bombardments as the north coast of Africa. During the last two and a half centuries the" guns of tho fleets of the various European Powers have, on many occasions, been directed against the cities'* which fringe the shores of the northern portion of the Dark Continent. On several of; these occasions the guns in question were called into play by the predatory tendencies of the inhabitants of that part of the world, for, till early in the nineteenth century, the Barbary corsairs, as the pirates of North Africa were styled, were the terror, not only of the Mediterranean, but of other seas. Even the distant coast of the British Isles did not escape their ravages, for, late in tho seventeenth century, the town of | Baltimore, in Ireland, was sacked by the crew of an Alegrine vessel. Several years before the event British guns had been trained on Algiers, for in 1655, Cromwell’s famous Admiral Blake, terrified its piratical inhabitants into a temporary respect for the power of Britain. Twenty-eight years later, in 168 o; the French Admiral, Dn Quesnos, taught them a similar lesson. Their power was not, however, by any means broken, and in the early years of the nineteenth century the United States'came into'Collision with the Tripolitans,'Uncle Sam having refused to pay tribute in order to secure American vessels from their attacks. Hostilities were carried on ; between 1801 and 1806.'"an (Tripoli ' was bombarded by an i American squadron and the Tripolitans were 'compelled to renounce’ their claims for ’tribute from the United- States. The operations of the Barbary corsairs, save for certain spasmodic activities on the part of the Riffs of Morocco, were soon afterwards put an and to by Britain and France. In 1816, on August 27th, Lord Exmouth, with a British licet, bombarded Algiers and released several hundreds of Christian captives. In 1830 the French, provoked by Algerine insolence and aggression, undertook theconquest of Algeria, which did not prove so easy a task as, perhaps, they nad anticipated, for the job was not finished till 18-17, and there were various troublesome' risings of the Arabs afterwards. During their warfare in Algeria, the French paid a little attention to Morocco, as tho Moors neglected to show proper respect to the' tricolour. A iicot under the ITince Do Aoinville, bombarded Tangier on August 6tb, 181-1, and repeated the performance at Mogador ten days later. in more recent years there have been two notable bombardments of towns on tiie North African coast—in addition lo those just completed by tiie Italians. In 1881 tiie French interfered in tho affairs of Tunis, the people of which had been giving them a good deal of trouble . They established a “protectorate” over the country, but before this was done much powder was burned. One of the principal operations of the war was the siege and capture of Sfax, a fortified town on the coast. Tho French fleet began a bombardment of the place on July otli and got possession of it on July 16tb. A year later English guns wore turned against the fortifications of a North African city. Arabi Pasha, the virtual military dictator of Egypt, contrived to so embroil Ids country with Britain that a British occupation was tho result. As a preliminary to the military operations Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, on July 11th, 1832, bombarded and silenced the forts at Alexandria.