The Hastings Standard Published Daily TUESDAY, NOV. 23, 1897. EUROPE IN AFRICA.

Hastings Standard, Issue 483, 23 November 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

TUESDAY, NOV. 23, 1897. EUROPE IN AFRICA.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Lord Salisbury in his speech at Guildhall the other day referred to Africa as the plague of the Foregn Oi'lice, there being so many claimants for the laud of tl e nigger, and in the carving up process England, France and Germany are disputing as to what will be the share of each. France and England have reached an interesting stage in their quarrel over the apportioning of West Africa, and as Lord Salisbury is determined that British rights shall be respected it is not at all impossible that England and France may have to resort to the arbitrament of war to settle matters. England wants Hausaland for the purpose of trade extension but the French want something more than trade, they want the military material that Hausaland furnishes. The population of France is not increasing and French statesmen admit that without fresh population to draw upon their position as a first-class Power will be imperilled. The Hausas have shown that with training by British officers they can be brought up to a standard nearly equal to the flower of Continental armies. In the Benin expedition early in the year the Hausa proved their fighting capacity and won high praise from military critics. France it will be seen is playing for a big stake, and she therefore cannot lightly yield. England, however, has certain rights acquired by treaty and she meaus to have these rights respected, and that is why France and England are at the moment at the point of eruption. A contemporary gives a short resume of the progress of partitioning the Western Soudan which helps to make the situation intelligible. During 188-4 and 1885 the National African Company, from which sprang the Koyaj Niger Company of 1886, amalgamated with, or bought out the French companies trading on the Niger, and concluded treaties conferring territorial rights with some 800 chiefs and states. In 1885 the Government declared the whole of the coast lying between the colony of Lagos and the Eiadel Rey a British Protectorate. On the north side of the new sphere a boundary was agreed upon with France in 1890, the line being drawn from Say on the Niger, eastwards to Barau on Lake Tchad, all south being British. It is to the west of the middle Niger that trouble has arisen, for the Niger Company claims jurisdiction under treaties with the Sultan of Gandu and the King of Borgu. The French from Senegal extended south and east of the Upper Niger and cut off the back country of Gambia, confining that colony to a few miles along the river, and destroying its future development. Still extending they then cut off the back country of Sierra Leone by the agreement of 1895, wbea tbe rigbt bank of the

Searciea and the whole of the Niger basin was ceded to the E uglisli. This line was demarked by the end of 1896. By this the French have come down to Liberia and have practically reduced that chaotic republic to a dependency and joined Senegambia with their Slave Coast Settlement, next to our Gold Coast Colony. In the meantime they also extended their influence down the Niger. Next to the Gold Coast comes the German Colony of Togoland, then the French colony of Dahomey, then the British territory Lagos. 'The back country of these is claimed, in part or in whole, by one and all. Hence the confusion and trouble.

In 1891 the Niger Company got a hint that the French from Dahomey meant to send an expedition into Borgu and Gurma to make treaties with the view of establishing a French protectorate, so as to annex the hinterland of Lagos up to the Niger and Bajibo and Busa. The Company hastily despatched Major Lugard, who reached Nikki, the capital of Borgu on sth Nov. 1893, three weeks before Commandaut Delecoeur, and concluded a treaty conferring territorial jurisdiction on the Niger Company. On his arrival Delecoeur proceeded to make treaties, and claimed that Major Lugard had got hold of the wrong people, in fact had extracted treaties from the priests instead of the chiefs, hence his documents were valueless. Since then the French have attempted to occupy both Busa and Bojibo, but found the Niger Company in possession, and desisted, but made protests before desisting to press their claims. Nov have the Germans from Togoland been idle ; they also have been concludingtreaties, and, as usual, declare that both the French and British representatives got hold of the wrong people, and even if they did get hold of the right people who had power to conclude binding treaties they were compelled by force to sign, therefore the treaties were valueless because signed under duress.

The position is thus summed up. The Niger Company claims Gandu and all its dependencies under the series of treaties concluded in 1885, lsfJO, and 1<S!)1 ; Germany claims under the treaty of 2nd April, 1895 ; Gurma to the south is claimed by the company as a dependency of Gandu ; France claims it under a treaty of 20th January, 1H95, and Germany under that of 21st January, 1H95 ; 13orga, the most southerly, is claimed by ihe company under the treaties of 20th January, IK9O, and sth November, IS!) t. and by France under the treaty of 26th November, IH9I. Thus the hinterlands of Lagos and Dahomey furnish fine scope for the exercise of the talents of the Commission now sitting in Paris to discuss and arrange che matter. It is hoped that a peaceful settlement will be arrived at.