Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-27
STORIES OF THE WAR
coIoniaf Laborers in France.

 Sixty tall Kabyles, mountaineers from eastern Algeria, descendants from the hardy and redoubtabIe race of Berbers, have lent a useful hand to the solution of the Paris street clean ing problem.
 Garbage boxes that are now set out of doors in some quarters as early as 10 o'clock in the evening, to the dam age of great many shins in dimiy lighted streets. are encountered in other quarters as late as o'clock in the afternoon, all on account of the l lack of help. Paris thus has been enjoying IT hours of continuous con- l temptation of city refuse that is stir | red, shaken and overturned in the meantime for rags, paper and bones. The Kabyles have done so well toward remedying this situation that 300 more of them VIII be utilized in the work There are now 26,000 of our people working in France for the national defense" says Si Salah Si Ahmed, caid or governor of the Douar Maatkas of Tizi-Ouzou in Labylie. Neither the climate nor the conflict daunts them" he added. Sf Saiah was sent by the 5000 inhabitants of his Douar to tell the French government it may count upon them for anything 1t wants. The experiment of Algerian help in , the field and factory in France has been a great success. These men, par ticularly those from the mountain re- gions,- have wonderful endurance, are
 
 They are working alongside other Mus sulmen from Morocco and Tunis, while a great many others are in the ranks of the Algerian riiemen at the front. They have proven a great deal more effective than the SenegaIese in this clfma te: they have shown quite a taste for farming, have learned quickly the use of machine tools in factories, and their apprenticeship in municipal work has perhaps been the greatest success of all.
 The Annamites from the French col ony of Indo-China, also unskilIed, have more fastidious in their work than the kabyles; as gleanerS in the harvest field last summer they were said to have never overlooked spear.
 The Moors are better fighters than they are farmers, yet they are taking to agriculture. and French observers who are watching the experiment look to the result of a most beneficial in fueDce upon the future agricultural development of Morocco.
 The GuestSn was raised in the Trench chamber of deputies recently as to what complicat tions might de- Selop from the presence of so many colonial laberers in France at the end of the war. The general sentiment was that no apprehension need be enter tained on this score. and that it was even less menacinS that the formidable extension of the use of women in me- chanical labor. The Kabyles. Indo- Chinese and Moors, 1t is held. will, after they have laid up a little money, be glad enough to go back home where their savings will enable them to play the nabob.
 Nearly every ship arriving from AL geria now brings more of the Kaby1es who are more and more counted upon to solve the question of labor They are taller than the average Algesian with features resembling somewhat those of the pea sa1ts of central France They are not uniform in complexion, some being dark and some light. with fair hair. Their language is the Der ber, although they use the Arabian letters The possibilities of the ex- pertinent may be judged from the fact that Kaby1ie is the most Dopuleus part of north Africa having 15S inhabitants per square mile.