Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-17
BY FRANK H. sIMoNDs.

tn ARIS.-As a sort of interlude be-
- tween the stormy discussions
arising out of foreign affairs and
Il the somewhat less acute debates
over domestic affairs resulting
from presidential election, France en-
joyed to the full the colonial entertain
ment furnished by the visit Of the
President Of the republic to Tunis. For
several days the French press was filled
with pictures, verbal and otherwise, of
the progress of Doumergue through the
scenery and setting of an Arabian
Nights Dream.
This celebration had. however, two
practical aspects. In the first place, it
serves as a sort Of grandiose advertise
ment for the great colonial exposition
which is to open this month, and is to
give both France and the rest of the
world brilliant impression of the i'm
portance of the French colonial empire.
In the second place, this new emphasis
upon French North African interests,
placed by a presidential tour, must
serve to consolidate French public opin-
9on behind naval program insuring
French communications with Tunis, AL
geria and Morocco.
This immediate North African empire,
three times as large as metropolitan
France, with population above 12,000.-
600. has become one of the most con-
siderable markets for French export, a
vast field for investment and source
Of precisely that number of soldiers
which enables France to continue to
meet Italy on equal terms and also to
face Germany. Moreover, on the eco
nonlic side it supplies France with ex-
actly the things which the nation needs
to live as a Self-contained state.
Trade Makes Development.
The other day I was at Marseilles,
and visited the magnificent harbor, it.
self the work of the years since France
began developing its North African en-
pire in a big way. There were not less
than half dozen big boats, steam up,
about to sail for Tunis, Algiers, Oron,
Soma and Casablanca. It is the trade
with this Africa, hardly more distant
than Philadelphia from Boston, that
eargely explains the great development
of MarSeilles, the commercial port, and
similarly the expansion Of Toulon as
the great French naval base.
In North Africa France has now more
than 1.000,000 Europeans; in Morocco
and Algeria the French numbers are
greater; in Tunis, on the other hand,
the Italians have always had q consid-
cradle advantage-90,0 900 Italians to TO-
900 French at the present moment But
French naturalization laws impose
French citizenship upon all children
born on French soil. Thus the Italians
have been losing steadily, and II the
process continues a little longer will
become a minority. It Is against this
process that Italy is protesting. and the
Tunisian naturalization issue is one Of
the most acute In Franco-Italian rela-
tons.
At the same time Italy. which never
1orgave the French for taking T1nis, so
years ago-it is the half-century ami
versary that Doumergue has been cele-
brating-haS been endeavuring to con-
struct her own North African empire in
Ir1poi. which she took from Turkey in
1911. But Tripoli has neither the eco
nonic nor the agricultural possibilities
OF Turts, much less Of Algeria or Mo-
rocco, and although the Italians have
literally accomplished marvels, there is
no present prospect Of any real ap-
proach to the Tunisian achievement be-
cause of natural causes
Holding Tunis, France not only domi-
mates one shore Of the Mediterranean
from Mell1a, little east of Gibraltar.
TO Tripoh, but its great naval base OF
Blzerta, the counterpart to TouIon,
watches the narrow waters between
Sicily and North Africa And between
Toulon and Bizerta Is Corsica, with its
secondary naval base. Given these DO
eitions and superior feet, France clearly
holds the upper hand in the Mediter-
ranean. and means to continue to hold
1t. Italy. on the other hand. Just as
:. clearly means to attain parity with
: France on water and in the air as well.
Old Caravan Routes Cut.
Moreover. the rivalry here existing Is
sccentuated by the fact that not only
does France hold the hinterland of her
own colonies but also that OF the Italian
thus cutting the old caravan routes which
extended from Tripoltan ports TO the
heart OF West Africa, to Timbuktu and
Lake Chad. Here Italy presses ole
Turkish claims, and in addition cites
French promises OF compensation, made
during the war. But France naturally
refuses 70 cede territory which would
interrupt the continuity of her empire
extending from the Mediterranean To
the kongo and from British Sudan to
the Atlantic
At the moment the great French
dream, which is, to be sure, very old, Is
70 complete the railway lines now
stretching down toward the desert from
the Mediterranean and up toward the
Niger from the Dahomey-Togo area by
building the stretch across the great
desert. This transaharan line would