PARIS ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 94, 26 April 1900, Page 4

PARIS ITEMS.

An awful account of the niaasacre of the in Madaga^ay-'i "*-• related'in tni 8 number of the Retouedn Revuei by—M. Paul Vigne dQctpij.-. Their king, Touere, had received with every h<feour party of Frenthjnpn, including the commander and jsev3i*l' ! who «ta&appoi utment Jivas announced. „ prepaftiig:to ' treat jjiq, soldiers most lavish hospitality, the Freribhmen left them to meet the-ts-opps, and were horrified to learn that they were to be attacked. Remonstrance was useless. In the middle of the night the column advanced, guns were posted in commanding position, and at daybrej 'c Ambike was entered. The inhabitan: s were sleeping quietly. " The Senegalese rushed into the houses, and the massacre began. Taken by surprise, and without any means of resistance, the whole population was bayoneted." Some of them tried to flee, and some, bleeding profusely, were caught and struck afresh. Kiiig Touere and all his people fell on that fatal morning. "The Tirailleurs were ordered to kill only the men, but they were not restrained. Intoxicated with the odour of blood they did not spare a woman or a child. The servants and the bearers of M. Samat, confused among the inhabitants, shared their fate. When the sun was in its strength the town was nothing but a horrible charnelhouse, in which the French, tired with having slain so much, were wandering." When the roll was called not a French soldier or sailor was missing. " Eed mud covered the earth. At the end of the afternoon, owing to the heat, a little mist rose—it was the blood of the 5,000 victims." A few of the Sakalaves who had only been wounded •survived. " A Frenchman, considering the execution sufficient, asked leave to succour them, but he did not obtain it, and they died during the night.'' The officer who commanded the column, and who gave orders for the massacre, was promptly promoted. He is described as chief of General Gallieni's staff.

If we are to believe £»me of the overexcited Anglophobes of Paris and of the Eastern districts, where luilitary mattera are followed with attention, the pleasing hypothesis of an invasion oi England is now much discussed among army and navy men of rank. According to the repeated utterances of some French naval officers, England was never so feeble as at the present moment. She could not find the 80,000 sailors necessary for the mobilisation of her fleet in the Channel, she is without men and guns for the defence of her coasts, the recall of the Mediterranean Squadron would mean less of her hold on Egypt, and she is accordingly at the mercy of a French invasion. This, in the view of the very sanguine sailors whose opinions are quoted by the Anglophobist papers, could be easily effected, " despite its apparent rashness." The army men do not, it appears, favour this opinion, although one of the most experienced of them is said to have urged the advisability of taking up the old plan of the first Napoleon, with the modifications and improvements rendered necessary by modern military science. This authority thinks, we are told,, that 100,000 men could be disembarked on-the shores of England with relative facility. Germany could, in the meantime, be faced on the eastern frontier with three millions of men, 6,000 guns, and 600,000 horsis. Such a strong army would, as the military expert is reported to have said, give her cause for reflection ; while Russia, watching from the other side, would have her j say also if William 11. moved. It is to be noted, in connection with these] Utopian lucubrations, that howeverj experienced tho military person who thinks the invasion of England comparatively easy may be. he is by no means backed by tho wise men composing the higher council of war, and the majority of the commanders of army corps are also fully alive to the difficulties of disembarking troops in England, so that there is little prospect of the adoption of such plans as that of the fi r st Napoleon, which the t Anglophobes are so fond of referring to in their periodical i.'fs of frenzy.