The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-21
FRANCE INVADES SOKOT0.
EXPEDITIONS CROSS TIE NIGER
,xD MAKE FOR THE CAPITAL.

..,. 4. the Most uuportant Native state IN
IN. soudap, apd. By Treaty, 10 Unser Brit
a.. Irduence-Tho Regal Niger Company
wu .,,,.t the Sultan to Repe the French.
Special Gable Ds'patchs' to THH SUE.
r,ss,, mouth Of the Niger. Feb. 2o.-It has
..on learned that two French expeditions are
.,..rc,ro toward tho city Of Sokoto. Six
.scsrs and 300 men arc now ut rgu and
~.u.o The Sultan of sokoto has commanded
49,, N halt forty miles from the capital.
WILLIAM wallace. tho agent of the Royal Niger
c.un.ny. holds the company's forces. anmuni.
.,o, and stores in readiness for an advance to
.,,,,t tho Sultan in securing tho evacuation by
A.. Frepch of British territory.
LONDON, Feb. 2o.-Tho motive Of the French
.s,.,o, upon sokoto. in West Africa. - told in
..,r.,ches from Akassa, 10 believed here to
~ b,uf, by tho Sultan of sokoto. who recently
.,,.r,ed tho effective occupation Of his capital
~ the Royal Niger Company's troops. 1t is
,.,,,cd that tho company has ordered Its agent
N e.pe, the French by force. II peaoeable means
fall.
Tho total British force at Lagos and In the
Gold Coast hinterland is between 5000 and
aooo men. These are entirely natives. with
N. sxception Of 200 white officers and instruo-
tors.
Tho Daily Mail will tomorrow publish an In
.srview with an official, an eI-resident OF the
Gold Coast, who declares that the history OF the
last seventeen years shows that there has been
an epdeavor on the part Of France to squeeze
Great Britain out Of West Africa.
The Standard says that the gravity Of the
situation is increased by the ignorance OF French
v~riters. tho dangers involved by the immediate
uroximity Of French and English troops, and
british feeling as regards the issues at stake.
The paper proceeds to recall that concessions
70 France have been tried in many quarters Of
tho world. Tho claims of England in Madagas-
car. Siam and Tunis, 1t says, have been allowed
N recede before the pretonsions Of France.
Further concession would only DO misunder-
stood. and Great Britain had better take q stand
firmly now. Tho game Of marching and coun-
termarching on territory that Ii ~indisputably
British must cease. II 1t 10 continued longer 1t
will mean bloodshed and probably q general
conflict.
The Times says that the French underrate
the gravity OF the situation In West Africa, and
odds that Great Britain cannot ALLOW the
French access to the Lower Niger. Continuing,
It says:
"We cannot allow them to strange our
colonies ct Lagos and on the Gold Coast as they
have s~trangled them at Gambia and Sierra
Leone"
.. PARs, Feb. Gothic Journal DIES Debate pub
fishes an article expressing tho views Of M.
Hanotaux. Minister Of Foreign Affairs. on the
West African situation. 1t says that both the
French and English Goxernmentsha ye instruct
Cd their officers ard agents In West Africa to alb
stain from anything that would possibly bring
shout a collision. The consensus of opinion in
Paris is that the possibility Of o conflict arising
from the Niger dispute is absurd.
These French expeditions. according to tho
above dispatches. have advanced either from
Timbucktu or from some OF the French posts
further down on the middle Niger, and have
crossed the river into the billy country OF So
koto. the most important native State in the
Western Soudan. This country with its de-
tendencies has a population Of about 10000
900, and an area that is not much less than that
Of Texas. By treaty with the Sultan Of Sokoto
the Royal Niger Company has full sovereign
power over a large part Of his territory.