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Show Ikof PRICE HELP HEAT WAR ! Supply Many Efficient Sol-f Sol-f cliers to Oppose Armies ! of Wilhelm. STRENGTH INCREASING Will Prove Valuable Fight-ing Fight-ing Asset if Struggle ij Should Continue. By Special Correspondent, PARIS. March 10. What colonial ' Kraivjhas done in the present war Is i nknown to the vast majority of ift people of the world. The French army colonial contingent is composed of various forces of great military value, classified under three heads: French colonists, white natives and colored men. They do not include those troops such as the Infanterie Coloniale or the Foreign Legion which were garrisoned in .the colonies when the war began, but had all I been recruited in Europe. The three elements ele-ments mentioned are, on the contrary, distinctly colonial. No official figures have been issued as regards the contingent supplied by the French colonists. The last census, however, how-ever, shows that there are 492.000 Frenchmen French-men in Algeria, 36,000 in Tunis and 36,-000 36,-000 in Morocco, to whom must be added 70,000 Algerian Jews who are all French citizens and have, by the way, behaved verv well at the front. This makes an i segregate of over tiOO.OOO people, all-liable I to conscription. Although mobilization I has not been extended in north Africa to as high an age as In France, It is prob-? prob-? abtv' under the truth in putting the whole I properlv French contingent (most of J whom "serve In the Zouaves) at about ? 60,000 men. J Come From Africa. We are somewhat better informed as regards the white native element, all from North Africa, generally known by the name Turcos, and who are officially termed Tirailleurs Algeriens. Tunlsiens, aiarocains. Tunis alone had, by March 15, 1915. raided a force of 41.000 men. On the other hand. Morocco, which is still half unconquered, has supplied only a few thousand native troops. By the middle of IMS M. Boussenct, in an essay based on documents supplied by the department concerned, stated that the white native force already raised by North Africa H-nounted to a total of 130,000 men. It mav sa.fe.lv be admitted that this con-I con-I tiugenL today is at least 10. 000 men. t Ybe-in body of the colored troops t cr.jiB of blacks from Fre nch West J -h-h, who are usually called Sene-alese. Sene-alese. although they are recruited in all I X vans cf Ihe French Sudan. These ex--"llnt troops have fought with dlstinc- on the Somme and around Verdun, aAll as in Gallipoli or in SalonikJ. Senegalese Recruits. ' ! Official statistics published in the Jour- I nal Off! del of French West Africa state that the number of Senegalese raised lor the European war reached In 3'Jlti the respectable figure of 118,000 men. Other equa lly official documents show ; that, if one add.s to that number the various va-rious colored con tin Rents supplied by In lo-China , Madagascar and the West Jndies (.where the blacks, being French citizens, are liable to conscription), the total reached in 1916 was well above another an-other 15'"', 000 men. (This brings a grand total of at least SO.O'JO men. In order to appreciate fully the importance of this contingent, it I must be remembered tliat it represents only the men actually In the ranks of the army fighting on the various European Euro-pean fronts, and that It would not bo turprising to hear that grea ter France will have supplied (he mother country with half a million, men before the war Is over. This does not include the colored forces which fought in Togoland and the Cameroons or the native labor imported im-ported into France from the colonies. These 360,000 men merely represent the military contribution made to the European Euro-pean firing line by greater France during dur-ing the first two years of the war. Increasing in Strength. This is yesterday's effort. What about the future? Those who wa n t to form a n approximate idea of what the fighting fight-ing power of the French, colonial empire will be one day must bear in mind that it is still in its infancy. So far as North ; Africa is concerned, some of the best re- j t-erves of men will remain practically nn- j touched until Morocco, which comprises j about four millions of sturdy Rera hers, is completely organized. Conscription is only beginning to be applied to Algerian ria.lives after the successful precedent of Tunis. The French and native population is Increasing there a.t a remarkable pace. A The native population In Algeria alone h'i?k doubled within the last forty years, "1 "V;le in the some lapse of time the t VrSOj element, which is developing fat fwhiiio a high birth rate and to immigration, immi-gration, has become four times more Important. Im-portant. It may be safely assumed that tlie whole popula tlon of North Africa., ivhlch numbers today about twelve mil-linns, mil-linns, will have reached twenty millions wi l hi n thirty or forty years, while the '"five million Marks at present living In French West Africa, and whoso number Is increasing even In time of war, will 1 have multiplied in a similar ratio. Is Easily Reached. , This will make a total population equal to the present population of Fra uce and -vceptional!y well prepared, both by its I own traditions and as a result of French ''ulf, to supply the mother country with ; additional military strength. , Another important circumstance must be kept in mind. Nothing but a narrow sea which Is heins crossed today within 1 'yenty-four hours separates France from orth Africa, which is much less a colony col-ony than a French province. A day will come when omp or several ratlwav lines will connect North Africa with that extraordinary ex-traordinary reservoir of soldiers, French j " 'st Africa. The French overseas forces ' the future will therefore be almost In touoii with the mother eountrv. There will be one solid French fighting block Pvt priding from the channel down to Nl- ' P'a and consisting of at least eighty ui'llinrt people. |