FRENCH EMPIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1940, Page 6

FRENCH EMPIRE

GREAT COLONIAL POWER HELP IN THE WAR. RECENT DEVELOPMENT. The part which the far-flung British Empire is taking in the present war is well-known, writes W. H. Chamberlain from Paris to the “Christian Science Monitor.” It is perhaps not so generally realised that France is a great colonial Power, with an overseas population of 63,000.000 human beings living under the French flag, a figure which exceeds by more than 50 per cent, the population of France itself. There is every indication that these French overseas possessions, which have developed considerably during the last generation, will make a still more important contribution than the French Empire of the World War to the French cause. It should be noted that what Franco possesses is an empire in the oldfashioned sense of the term. There are no countries overseas predominantly inhabited by Frenchmen and associated with France on the same entirely voluntary basis as Canada and Australia and New Zealand are associated with Great Britain. Except, for a certain, number of French settlers in North Africa, especially in Algeria, the French in the colonies are a small ruling class, soldiers administrators, merchants, traders and civil servants. At the same Lime, the general absence of colour prejudice in France gives the French certain advantages over Anglo-1 Saxon peoples in dealing with native races. France’s colonial subjects have their grievances. But the educated native of Indo-China or Senegal or Madagascar will be received in Paris without regard for the colour of his I skin. i THREE FORMS OF HELP. I Colonial help to France will assume I three main forms: soldiers, labourers, and supplies of food and raw materials. | About 500,000 colonials fought in the French armies in the World; of these about 75,000 lost their lives. The best fighting races in the French Empire ' are the Moors and Berbers of North Africa. The lingo blacks from Sone- I gal. in Central Africa, have also shown ' themselves capable of training as efl’ec- ; live soldiers.

The energetic Minister of Colonies. M. Georges Mandel, has been especially active in recruiting native forces, and he recently told a French audience that France has already mobilised more overseas troops than it raised during the whole period of the World War. despite seven successive enlistments at that time. The racial theories of Adolf Hiller, according to Mr. Mandel, have been useful recruiting propaganda for France, and Negroes from Senegal, from the Ivory Coast and from the southern regions of the Sahara have been quick to volunteer becausethey consider Germany the enemy of the Negro race. The labourer is almost as important as the soldier, if only because he releases for active service a man who would otherwise bo working behind the linos. Two hundred thousand colonial labourers were recruited and transported to Franco during the World War. Indo-China. of which the northern and eastern provinces are overcrowded, and Madagascar will probably supply still more labourers in the present conflict. ASSET IN COLONIES. Before the World War there was a good deal of theoretical discussion asto whether colonies “paid." France certainly regards her colonial posses-1 sions as a solid economic asset. Dur-1 ing the World War they delivered! 3,506.06(1 tons of foodstuffs and oilier products. Thanks to the development

that has taken place since that time, it is believed that the annual deliveries of the colonies in the present, war will amount to 5.000,000 or 6,000,000 tons. At a time when gold and foreign currency are carefully husbanded it is an immense economic advantage to be able to purchase such a variety of foodstuffs, tropical products, and other raw materials for francs.

| As regards food supply France is in ,1a better position than either Germany or England: it is even bettor off than many neutral countries which have been obliged to introduce rationing. This is due partly to the fairly even balance between agriculture and industry in France itself, partly to the varied resources of the colonial empire. The African colonies provide all the rubber that is needed and twice as much cocoa as France consumes. The West Indies and Africa provide an abundance of bananas, and Indo-China is one of the world's granaries of rice. Franco can also receive an unlimited amount of timber from its overseas possessions and is adequately provided with sugar. The tropical African colonies are rich in vegetable oils. NEW MINERAL WEALTH. In case of necessity now sources of mineral wealth can be tapped in the colonies. France already gets nickel and chromium from remote New Caledonia. in the South Pacific. There are copper deposits at Mindouli. in the Congo, which were abandoned as unprofitable. but which may be useful m time of war. This is also true as regards oil deposits in Morocco and Algiers. All in all it is a question whether Bismarck did not make a mistake when he kept Germany out of the race for colonies and encouraged Franco to seek consolation for its defeat in 1870-71 in distant lands of Asia and Africa. The French colonial empire, which can bo fully exploited because of AngloFrench control of the seas, is an important factor in the reckoning of the present struggle.