BLACK ARMY FOB FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 292, 2 May 1913, Page 8

BLACK ARMY FOB FRANCE.

J ■' ; COU>RED TROOPB WHO MIGHT '■ "FIGHT AGAINST WHITES. Paris, February 23. The Minister of War and the Colonial Minister are studying the possibility «f '• 1 introducing a considerable portion of ;•& France's black army to the* Parisians the national review on July 14. ' , It is proposed that each regiment-*- i the Senegalese, the Madagascar troops -:J and others—shall send a delegation, iA# that President Poincare 'shall, pretest ■s! each regiment with its flag. The Firtfc •% Sengalese Regiment, which bat its flag -"Jj already, will receive the insignia of the \"j| Legion .of Honor, which decoration 3 Wat •£■ recently gazetted. France's black army hat practically ~':1 sprung into being in the last tlx yean, and the magician whose wand hat raited ' J it is Colonel Mangin, who;was, when a :$ captain, the second in command chand's famous mission to Fathoda 4ft 1896. ■ us There is no question at all' that tt | case of need France would use her blMk ; ; troops in a European war against wMto men, and France's black army now to something to reckon with. i In 1907 there .w.ere 8750 i der avmß." > > Fhe Senegalese army now jj is well over 50,000 strong, and could W % doubled very* quickly. , -i As precedents for using black troop*! against Europeans, there are Williamj#tli Orange's black regiment when he li&tfSPj in England; Maurice de Saxe't troops at Fontenoy; the black battaUQ|iii| under Murat in (he Russian campamg and tho iFlfinch bleak, troops in .OoaJ»rs loupe,'. ho' fought' tne>EngUth.' ~ Jjl Besides the Senegalese troops, would be regiments from the BouduLn| from Dahomey, and from the Congo, tMaM Colonel Mangin estimates that thdrtflßß would be no difficulty whatever in pq&gH ting between 120,000 and 140,000 mek'M Algerian and black, into the field to'JjH Europe in a short space of time. . It is difficult to get accurate informed! tion about the black army, for the Wvfl Office,ik naturally reticent. .There ififl six regiments of four battalions eaeh 1 Senegal. In the Soudan, French QoiviiuH and the Ivory Coast there are three lijHH giments of four,' oattalions each; ttafjaH are two battolioW in* Dahomey,. twellv|jH black battalions in Algeria and Tunfay|H and a brigade in Morocco. ' JM A French military authority, GeneMtjH Bonnal, estimates in a document whttkH is tiled at the French War Office that-,*JM division of 10,000 blacks, officered Frenchmen, could make V breajelr German, line of. battle of two lir miles, and push them back, infantry, ,ca'va)ry and French troops had prepared the'way