BLACKS TO FIGHT WHITES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 161, 6 January 1912, Page 10 (Supplement)

BLACKS TO FIGHT WHITES.

FRANCE BUILDING UP ARMY OF AFRICANS. "Would you use black troops against white in the event of a European war?" This question was put to Colonel Mangin, the French officer who is training the Republican black troops in Africa. "Of course we should," he answered, "and we should not be the first nation to do so. Do not forget that it was with the help of their black troops that the Mussulmans conquered North Africa, and that it was with their help that they conquered Spain. Remember, too, that William Prince of Orange had black troops with him when he landed in England, and that Maurice de Saxe had black troops at Fontenoy—infantry and cavalry both. A battalion of black men went through Napoleon's Russian campaign under Murat, and France kept Guadeloupe thanks to her black troops, who fought very well against the English."

"But," said the interviewer, "to preserve authority over your black troops you must imbue them with fear of the white man. Are you not afraid that if you use them against white' men and they are successful that they may turn against their masters afterwards?"

"Not in the least," said Colonel Mangin. "Tho black man neither loves nor fears the white man just because he is white. He loves and fears his own white man—the man who is in authority over him. The black man is a child, simple-minded, fearless and affectionate. He must be treated as a child, that is to say, with absolute firmness, but without unreasonable brutality. If so treated he will do anything for the white man, whom he looks upon very literally as his father.

"They would fight even better a.gainst white men than against other blacks for very pride of being allowed to do so. I will give you proof of this—an- eye-wit-ness' proof. We were in a big square enclosure at Fashoda. When Kitchener arrived there he thought it advisable to show us that his numbers were enormously superior to ours, and ordered a march-past of the troops under his command. They were about thirty to one of us. We officers looked at the numbers. Our black troops did not worry about that. They watched the big Highlanders and other white men, and they begged us to let them see what they could do against them. "I don't suppose many of them would have been left alive if it had come to a fight, and they knew that as well as we did. Death counts for nothing to the black who can die fighting, and death in a fight with a white man is a thing to be prayed for."

"That is all very well, but in a European war with new quick-firing guns, which are quite new to them, would not the black troops lose their heads?" "The perfected gun and most of the perfections in modem warfare will be quite new experiences to white European! troops as well," said Colonel Mangin. "There has been no trial of them yet. But our black trops are pluck itself, and no enemy has ever frightened them. I think they could be trusted to behave as well as white soldiers, and even better."

"Have you any black officers at all?"

"Very few. There are seven lieutenants and .five sub-lieutenants. As a general rule we find that the black men work best with white officers over them. They have absolute confidence in a white officer, and do not trust the powers of a man of their own color. The forethought and organising power of the white man are god-like mysteries to them, and they trust them implicitly-for that reason, Of course, there are great differences among the black troops from our different colonies. .The negroes from the coast and from the forests are the least warlike. Our best men are the men of the plains, and it is from them that we are taking our soldiers. They are a proof of the survival of the fittest, for they have fought other tribes for centuries, and have always, or nearly always, been victorious, or they would not be there."

"But are you not afraid that when you've organised a big black army it may turn against the hand that taught it? Supposing your black troops, after a big success against white men in a European war, were to rise against the French?" "We are not the least afraid of that," said Colonel Mangin. "In fact, I'm inflined to the opinion that what you suggest is impossible, and I will tell you why. Our- whole system of colonisation is making our black men into loving sons of France. Our men have their wives and homes with them in a rather near barracks, and when they have dona their service they go back with them'to their homes, and we encourage them to do so. We give them eveTy encouragement in our power, they return as men of authority, and they teach the stay-at-homes that the greatest thing in life is to learn how to serve France, and to serve her well. The system works splendidly, and we find that the men we get from the villages are better and more useful every year because of the training they have had from the old soldiers." England leaves a certain amount of I authority to the native chiefs who were in authority before. Her system of col- i onisation is a system of protectorate. We work differently. We prefer to substitute our direct authority, and we find that we become more intimate with the blacks in consequence. We know what the black men think at home. We are always with them and among them, and we treat them as they should be treated, that is to say, like grownup children. "I am not alone by any means in my opinion of the uses and the possibilities of a black army for France. General Langlois, one of the finest soldiers we have, was convinced that our colonies in West Africa would and could furnish 50,000 black men at least whom we can use in any climate. General Bonnal is of my opinion, too. 'We would put,' he said, 'our nine Algerian divisions in the front of the next European war. The savagery and impetuosity of their rush with the bayonet would be of immense value at the beginning of the war, and the black troops would have no rivals | in the final shock. Rome, when her own resources began to fail, dominated the world for several centuries owing to her black troops. The example is worth following. And it should not be forgotten that with the big transport service which we and our fiiiends the English have at our disposal, wo can put 120,000 men, Algerians and Senegalese, into the field with comparative ease." "I agree with General Bonnal," said I Colonel Mangin, "that black troops officered by Frenchmen will be the frrst | troops in the world. General Bonnal wrote in an official document of last December that he estimated that a division of 10,000 blacks could make a breach in a German line of battle of two to three 'miles, and could push them hack, scattering infantry, artillery and cavalry, after the way had been prepared for them by French troops. "We are raising six regiments of four battalians each in Senegal, in the Soudan, French Guinea and the Ivory Coast, three regiments of four battalions each, in Dahomey a regiment of two battalions, in Algeria and Tunis four regiments of three battalions, and in Morocco a complete brigade. In four years, and perhaps before that—this great black army will be in actual being."