OCR Text |
Show b tif when she pushed her lines to the eastern and southern bounderiee of Morocco, then -Ormany aroused herself and began to protest. It was thought that the matter was aettled in conference four years ago, but it was renewed when Germany sent a warship to the little port of Agadir on the aouthwest Atlantic coast of Morocco, and claimed sovereignty there. The matter is sat.il! unsettled, and it ia one which France looks upon aa an unprovoked unpro-voked challenge on the part of Germany. Perhaps Germany could not have planned any other aggression aggres-sion which France would have so unitedly opposed. Franc is planning what the army of Algiers would do were, that land to be invaded. But in the event of waf that would not be considered by Germany. She would doubtless send a fleet there to prevent the transfer of the African array to France, but nothing more. She would aim to do aa was idon before by Von Molke. When the French newspapers in 1870 raised the cry of "On to Berlin!" and predicted that Prussia would be invaded within thirty days, Von Moltke grimly said: "If they wait thirty days they will never crosa the Rhine with an army," and they did not. In the event of war the effort on the part of Germany will be to repeat what was done in 1870. But in that event Frnace will have a double incentive in-centive to urge her on the old hate of Germany,' and the further feeling that Germany was seeking to check her in her policy of regenerating northern Africa. Negotiations evr wtill oiif and 4he-wrW is hoping that, a peaceful solution of the difficulty may be reached, but should they all culminate in a war, the world may expect that France will fight as she" neVer has since Napoleon met the three empe-rori empe-rori and crushed their power at Austprlitz. FRANCE IN AFRICA. Aa a rule Frenchmen are. hot good coloniMa. .They" in a, new. land are lite an army that lias bro-ken'aw bro-ken'aw ay from ita base of supplies and is floundering flounder-ing before possible dangers. then in the day time' they are thinking of France ; by night they dream of Paris. "Think of it!" said eld man Depew in San Francisco, 1'Think of it! Ten years from Paris ! This last four ears in Sail Fraucisco is. ,not so dreadful, but when 1, think of the years lost in that up-country village 'I am tht ngry that I would give the what do you call him? oh, yes, I would give the hoodlum $6 to kick aie around ae block." But the journey from. Marseilles to Algeria is so short that the aense of isolation is not fett. Moreover, More-over, for the French soldier the excitement and ptihsiblo dapgei1 of exploring' the boundless continent conti-nent f the south ia full ef charm, which is often . intensified by a scrap with the wild riders of the desert, until now France haa aa area of land in ' Africa about ten timea aa large as France herself, - and that territory is so densely peopled that every third French subject is in African. , . Tk French army in Africa ia probably the most effective branch of her army, eertainly.ao if a campaign were '.to be conducted in a wild country. - For hundred years she haa been making her advance there and she has brought to her aid every device that science eould suggest to make the moat . wjt of her conquest - - For four score. years it haa been geqerally eon-ceded eon-ceded that France was to have northern Africa. i .... |