Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-11-03
The Tunis Expedition.

1
1t seems that there are now one hun,
dred and twenty thousand men i'm AT.
rica; but more are being sent out daily
and 1t is supposed that the government
wants to raise its forces to two bun.
dred thousand before undertaking a
series OF grdfds coups. If these co,sps
succeed, the nation will of course con
done all that is past; but if there
should be failures the confidence of the
people In their army and their govern
ment will receive shock which NAV
produce grave consequences. From
the first this Tunisian expedition was
far from popular. The opposition.
monarchical as well as radical, began
by throwing ridicule upon it; and now
that the laugh against the Khroumirs
who were said to be bogeys invented
by M. Gambetta and Roustan for their
own purposes) has died out, all the
elements for a very pretty scare are
quietly collecting in the minds of the
people. Ina country where everybody
reads newspapers, and where the most
ignorant claim to be more far-sightei
in their political prophecies than the
instructed, it is natural that sinister
predictions should find most favor.
"Prussopnobla" is sentiment as active
as ever among the lower classes of
Frenchmen; and the theory that
Prince Bismarck is only waiting for
reverses in Tunisia in order to pounce
upon France, with Italy and Spain for
his allies, is one which the politicians
of the wine-shop find it easy to dem
onstrate. And it is enough that such
an idea should gain ground for the
government to be involved in very
awkward embarrassments, should the
war in Tunis not be conducted with
rapidity and success.
One thing has become manifest since
the appearance of the African diff
culties-namely, that the French are
growing impatient at the mismanage-
ment of their Algerian colony, and are
anxious to see it governed on some
new plan for the future. 1t is asked,
with good reason, how it comes about
that in a country where there
are only three millions of ma
tives such large armies as the French
have kept in Algeria for the last fifty
years should have been unable to secure
permanent peacep There has never at
any time since Algeria became French
been force of less than forty thous-
and soldiers in the colony; but more
often the number has exceeded fifty
thousand, and on several occasions
when there were little wars to be car
ried on the total of the effective has
reached one hundred thousand. 1t has
beeh pointed out that if England had
propOrtiOnate difficulties with India,
she could not afford to keep that de-
tendency at all; and then the question
arises as to why England should be able
to govern population of two hundred
million of men thousands of miles from
home with comparatively small army,
while France cannot manage three
millions of Algerians in a country
which is only two days journey from
her shores. AS public attention fas
been much turned to Algerian affairs
of late, this question, put forth in a
great many newspapers, has provoked
a number of ingenious explanations
from officers and civil servants who
have lived in the colony. Most of
these declare that France has not "the
colonizing genius;" but this is not quite
true, for in old times the French were
very successful in coloniziDg Louisiana,
Canada, and some other places; SO that
one must rather adopt the explanations
very bluntly given by some of the
writer's who have signed themselves
'ex-Algerian COlonists," and who as
sert that successive French govern
ments have failed to pacify Algeria
because they were not in earnest about
it, and preferred to treat the colony as
military training-ground The theory
of these ex-colonists is that rebel chiefs
were preserved" on Algerian soil, Gas
tigers ara in some parts of India,
for the sake of sport" If
this were not the case, why should the
French government have so often
treated these insurgent chiefs as hon.
orable belligerents. when they ought to
have crushed them like mere brigands
Cali the talk about rebellions inspired
by religious fanaticism is mere moon
shine," writes one of the ex-colonists.
'The Algerian chiefs are for the most
part religious after the manner of ltal
ian banditti. They feel their con-
sciences prick them whenever they see
their way to swooping upon a defense
less settlement and carrying off its cat
tie. AS for the government, when
the settlers cry out to it for help, il
coolly waits until the brigands have
accomplished their raid in order that
it may have an excuse for sending out
an expedition with great deal OF
pompous fuss. In time the brigand'
gets routed, and the chief is takel
prisoner; but, instead of being sent II
Jail as malefactor, he is lead tri
umphantly into one of the cities
where he condescends to sign
capitulation and as recompense 10
swearing allegiance to our flag he
invested with a red burnOus and the
, set free. Meanwhile the officers of tn
expedition have all received promotio
and decorations, and the government
is enabled to boast of brilliant success
for French armsw The ex-colonist
conclusion is that Algeria wants fewe
soldiers, but more gendarmes; and tha
if once the romance of war" wei
stripped off those "razzias" which ha,
cattle-lifting for their principal objee
. the Arab chiefs would soon learn
smoke their pipes in peace and kee
their religious scruples to themselve
But it is idle to expect that Alger
. will become a prosperous colony
long as the interests of the settlers a.
sacrificed to those of ambitious mil
rary men who are anxious to purcha'
glorv at a cheap rate.