TROUBLES IN AFRICA.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8163, 18 April 1895, Page 4

TROUBLES IN AFRICA.

Within the last few days disquieting news has reached us by o ble ag to the relation* between England and France in Western and Central Africa. The circumstances which have led up to tho present situation may be shortly stated. For the last twenty-five yeara or so France has been allowed to have practically a free band on tho West Coast, and has fully availed herself of the pafsivenesa of England. Starting from her old settlements in Seuonal, she hasocsupied substantially tho whol • of tho great region between the Upper Niger and the sea. The British Colony of the Gambia has been hemmed in by French acquisitions until ib hss been reduced to a atrip on the lower half of the river whose narao it bears. Siera Leone has fared no better, having been deprived of all possibilities of extension by the adTance of the French. Tho colony of tho Gold Coast further east is confronted by French cairns which, if recognised, would d om it to a similar fate. On the Lower Niger the Royal Niger Company have for some time been threatened by all eortß of claims on the part of the Republic, calculated to resbrict the terr bory under i»8 control and hamper its developement. Half a century aj;o France occupied a position on the Gaboon ; subsequently she occupied another post on the Ogovr. Within recent years theae posts have become the germs of the French Congo, and from this colony her object) manifestly is to extend her borders indefinitely towards the head waters of the Nile. In this diiecbion •he cannot go without reaching the liiuita of the Britißh sphera in East Africa. It oow appears that in breach of the convention of 1890, to which wo will more particularly refer pro* sently, French expeditions are appearing within the then settled British •phere of influence, under tho pretext of a peaceful mission for exploring the Hinterland and Dabomy, whilst the French Minister for Foreign Aflairs declines tny satisfactory explanation, and the tone of the Parisian Press is decidedly bellicose. When a readjustment of the position of England and France in Africa and elsewhere was come to in 1815 France was left in possession of the West Coast from Cape Blanco to the mouth of tho Gambia. Alth ugh the conquest of Algeria was begun in 1830 it was not until twenbjr five yeara later thab France resumed in earnest her advance into the interior by way of Senegal ; and by 1865 the French occupation extended to the Upper Senegal as far Bt least as Medina. Frenoh influence wai recognised by treaty from Cape Blanco to British Gambia, and even at one or two points on the south of the Gambia, now represented by the French co'ony of Rivieres dv Sud ; whilst the country from some distance in tho interior to the south of the •Senegal bad been more or less brought into mbjection. The Niger itself was reached in 1861 by an expedition under Lieutenant Mage, who came into relations with Ahmadon, who practica'ly rated a'l this region. Sub sequeut'y, until 1880, French activity was intermittent rather than continuous, but was then renewed with greater determination than ever. In that year France entered into a series of military campaigns, hardly yefc con» eluded. She had to deal with poweifu' semi-civilised potentates, having hordes of fighting men, many of the marmod with modern weapons. The Ahmadon mentioned above waß the first to be brought to term?. In 1881 he signed a treaty which gave France the protectorate of » considerable stretch of the Mt bank of the Upper Niger, though it was not until 1887 that he was compelled to place the whole of his territories undrr French protection. Early in tho eighties the French advance on the Nigor was birred by an even more formidable antagonist — Samory, whose rule extended over nearly the whole of the country drained by the Niger Bources. In 1886, 1887, and 1889 he conceded by treaty all his possessions, and his State has become French territory. Other portions of the extensive region between the coast was practically under French domination, but during the last four years this domination has been confirmed and extended on the north and on the south. No other European Power interfered, and the English policy lft'd down thirty years ago has been strictly adhered to, with the result, as uotod above, that the Gambia has been reduced to a strip along tho lower Inlf of the river ; whilst Sierra Leone has been restricted on all sides, left with oub a Hinterland, and reduced to an area of some 15,000 equare miles. Even before 1890 the hod of England on the Lower higer had become ■übstantial. In 1879 the United African Company was formed, and seven years later developed into the Royal Niger Company that obtained a charter in 188 G. At the instance of Gambebta, traders tried hard to establish French influence on the lower river, but without success. The scramble in this as in other parts of Africa was intensified by the appearance of Germany in the field in 1884. England, however, was ablo to secure tho whole of the oil rivers, and, through the energy of the company, Bribish influence was established by 188G a'ong tho Lower Niger to almosb within hail of Timbuctoo, and a solid block of territory on both sides of the r.vera Niger and Benno was Becuted to the British flag. The French advance eastward beyond the great bend of the Niger would thus seem to have been restrained ; but she did not abandon her ever expanding scbowes, and contrived to occupy fmbher points of vantage, gaining command over a stretch of coasb between Gold Coast Colony and Liberia. She furbhor claimed rights over tho middle stretch of the Niger, which, if admitted, would annul the claims to that region of the Niger Company. The advance of the company on the one side and of the French from the westward led to the conclusion of the Anglo- French agreement of August 5, 1890, whioh it was hoped would pub an end to rivalry in West Africa, and would give JSagUnd. a free baqd (q advance east).

ward in tha Oenbral Houdan from the I ower Niger ns her base. According to this agreement, an irregular line was drawn from Say, on the Niger, some 300 miles bolow its bend south* wards to Barrua, on the west coast of hike Chud. The company thus renounced all thoir claims to the Niger lietweon Say nnd Timhuctoo ; whilst Franco was nob to seek to acquiro any mlluonco south of the lino drawn. The delusion that all difliculties wero thus sottl»'d was of short duration. The French in tho very same year on croached in inoro then one direction, nnd tho Niger Company aeom to have beon helpless to prevent thorn, ib not boing doomed practicable to proceed further to the north and west so as to occupy tho Uritish sphere on the Western Nile tributaries, nnd placo a barrier to French advances in these quarters. Thus pushing h'-r wny into the heart of the continent, Fiance has not ne»lectod hor interests in tho Gold ('oasb regions. The conduct of the King of Dahomey induced her to take virtual possession of tho whole of that territory, and, although by the AngloFrench agreement) of 1889 the British Gold Coast Colony is limited, so far na its Hinter'aud goes, to 9deg north latitude, still the rights acquired by the Royal Niger Company would bring the British sphere westwards aud southwards so ns to cover that limit. Bub the French here again claim tbat they have rights which can be sot against those of the company, which on the right bank of the Niger would confine the sphere of tho latter to a comp natively narrow strip. I is to be hoped that these and other conflicting claims will be settled by di^bmncy ; but at presenb the outlook can hardly bo regarded without apprehension, and the aggressive action of France is evidently exciting an un comfortable feeling in EDglaud. — Star