St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1917-07-11


faTis Wy ~ Correspondence OF
Thief ASSUMED ffess ,GFfench col
onies and protectorates are going to
furnish France big part OF the food
and raw materials she has been get
ting from foreign countries, In the
opinion OF Albert Lebrun, deputy from
the Department of Meurthe and No
selle and former minister of colonies.
France will also, he thinks, furnish a
larger part Of the things her colonies
buy
France pays foreign countries
about 30O,U00,000 francs a year for
oiEprodueing products he said to
"a representative of The Assoeia ted
Press, while she has a Senagai. sof,
the Ivory coast in Daf1oraey.: Gabon
and Indo-C China, immense resources in
these products, that are undeveloped.
Palm trees and cocoanut trees grow
there naturally. while the soil is well
adapted to the production Of peanuts
which produce a comestible oil great
ly appreciated not only in France bit
in Germany. The Germans took TO-
600 tons of peanuts from our colony
in Senegal during the first half Of
1e14.@ The beam that produces castor
oil. so essential to our aviation, also
thrives in our colonies Y:=a.
OF s1i0,00O tons of coffee consumed
i'm France each year only, about 5000
tons come from our colonies, yet our
(nnOn Fin oh y,1o TO 10 n.
plantations of the Dutch Indies. The
same situation prevails in different
degrees with regard to: cocoa, rubber
and cereals. -.
Il 'tOf 42.0B0,000 francs worth of to-
bacco imported by France annually,
Algeria furnished tobacco. : The rest
comes from foreign markets, but we
have splendid tobacco land in West
Africa alongside ! that on which the
Germans had already developed plan
tationss in. the Kamerun that gave good
crops of, excellent quality. ).
I: France Is short of paper; she has
always. been dependent upon Sweden
for pulp, yet1the high plateaus of. Al
.geria abound with fiber producing alta
and the hillsides of Benin and Cochin
China are rich with bamboo and
papyrus that ought long. ago to, have
Pulp mills there could not only fur
nish what we require, but could .ex-
port large quantities to foreign coun-
tries, thus helping our exchange. ~
France imports sos, 800 tons OF
cotton, per year, four fifths4 from the
United States and the rest, excepting
a few hundred tons, from Egypt and
India. In the same latitude we have
immense spaces in our colonies where
cotton grows unaided in its wild state;
lit needs only a little help to develop
into an important production. -.
"The jute and flax Of Tonkin and
West Africa are used in ~ primitive
ways by the natives to make nets,
cardage and : hats Systematic. i'm
provement in the cultivation. of those
regions; would. bring an important re
source to France. s ii. & 49, a.
| There is nothing our colonies pro-
duce that We cannot utilize to the best
advantage, yet France did only 40 PEI
cent of the trade of our colonies, eX-
Ecluding Algiers, Tunis and Morocco in
Il913:ts2k per cent of their trade was
between themselves, the rest about
81 per cent. was with foreign coun-
Etries. Germany and Austria. were
rapidly increasing their share of it be
| fore the war Their, trade was 3d.
I 900, goo francs in 1907. It had grown
| to 70,OO0,0O0 francs "a year in 1912
tGermaty's trade was the largest of all;
lin some Of, our colonies, .Dahomey, fel
instance, coming even before that with
France. 7<.e 8 %53ss..i.&4 u ..sts #. IL.
/; France has the second colonial do
minior1;, of the world, comprising in
l1914. 100000 square miles. inhab-
tied by more. than SO, 1000 900 persons
!. Their general trade bad reached
+ 8 loco, 900, 900 francs a}year,s or about
one fifth of that of the mother conn-
ltry,.i in 1913. During the war they
! have been great aid to the. home
country in the furnishing of oils, sce.
reals, wool. rice, live stock. Theil
role for the future will be to replace
| to q great extent other foreign mar
lkets on which France depended be,
| fore" =,s, r sees}es j: 2..z@ -e.+. s.
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