The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-11-19
ThewurToddy

4 IS necessary that We KNOW
something Of 1t.
So IL you'll dig out your maps
of Africa l will show you what
I mean.
Now, if you will flip q dime
or these being hard times, make
il a nickel - towards the heart
of the dark continent, and you
are q fair shot, 1t will fall close
to a big panel known as French
Equatorial Africa.
That is the fighting French
territory, which has Chad on
the north and reaches SOUTH
ward to include Ubangi-Shari,
the French Cameroons, the
Middle Congo and Gabon. Braz-
zaville, way down on the Low
er Congo, is the capital OF this
huge area which pokes its hot
nose close to the equator and
likes 1t.
USE MAP
French General Mangin once
remarked that he who holds
Chad, holds Africa. A map will
help you get the significance OF
this statement in part, but
you've got to see the recent
works of man in this still large
ly primitive vastness to under
stand it in full.
I've just made my way across
this zone by the sweat of my
brow and have discovered what
Mangin peant.
First OF, you will note on
your maps that II French
Equatorial Africa had been con-
trolled by Vichy. as was adjoin-
ing French West Africa, there
would have been q huge barrier
dividing Allied territory right
through the whole area almost
from the equator to the Med
iterranean. That In itself would
have created a grave handicap
and prevented the strategic de-
velopment which ! shall de-
scribe.
Chad, which lies against Ital-
ian Libya, is the military key to
this part of Africa.
Fighting French leaders fore
saw Hitler's plan to use North
Africa to gain domination Of
the Mediterranean and, right af-
ter the fall of France, moved to
secure control of Chad.
This key position was under
the powerful governorship Of
General Eboue, q huge negro
who was one of the most cap
able administrators in the en-
pire. He elected to stand with
the fighting French and as a re-
suit all French Equatorial Africa
joined the Allies.
This was done before any ef.
fort was made to raise q fight
ing French army for this region,
which lies at the rear Of the
Axis battlefront. Since then an
army and military resources
have been developed and we
shall hear much more of them
before this conflict is finished
French Equatorial Africa now
provides a span for an Allied
bridge right across Africa.
During the past two years
the fighting French and the 9TH
er Allies have joined hands In
pioneering an almost Incredible
chain of developments from the
Atlantic coast, clear across
Africa to the Middle East.
The Allies have performed the
historic feat of a complete line
of air and water communica-
ton through the heart of this
no-man's land. 1t is q magnifi-
cent pioneering feat and 1t il
good to be able to report that
American men have played q
prominent part, risking their
lives among bottomless morass-
es Of jungles and daring ter
rible diseases which poison
Equatorial Africa's air.
Thus, day and night, there
stream across Africa supplies
and personnel needed on Allied
fronts from North Africa clear
to far-off China. Here we fol-
low one of the difficult but
straight and narrow paths to
victory.
That's not the whole story,
however. There have been great
industrial developments both in
fighting French territory and in
other Allied countries.
Ancient and broken down
caravan towns have been mod
ernized and become throbbing
centers Of Allied efficiency.
Places like Brazzaville, which
were just collections of natives
huts, have been set on the road
to progress and become interna.
tional cities in which French,
Americans, British, Belgians,
Poles and what-not brush shoul-
ders in the public square.
GRINDS GRIST
Along with manufacturing,
there has been a notable in
crease in cattle raising and
agriculture. In short, this vast
belt is a mill which is grinding
grist for the Allies and laying