You Will Often Hear In England Regarding French
Annexation In Africa, "Oh!
Let her have the deadly hole, and much
good may it do her." France knows very well what good
It will do
her, and she will cheerfully take all she is allowed to get quietly,
as a sop for her quietness regarding Egypt, and she will cheerfully
fight you for the rest - small blame to her. She knows Africa is a
superb training ground for her officers. Sham fights and autumn
manoeuvres have a certain value in the formation of a fighting army,
but the whole of these parlour-games, put together in a ten-year
lump, are not to be compared to one month's work at real war, to fit
an army for its real work, and France knows well the real work will
come again some day - not far off - for her army. How soon it comes
she little cares, for she has no ideal of Peace before her, never
has had, never will have, and the next time she tries conclusions
with one of us Teutonic nations, she will be armed with men who have
learned their trade well on the burning sands of Senegal, and they
will take a lot of beating. We do not require Africa as a training
ground for our army; India is as magnificent a military academy as
any nation requires; but we do require all the Africa we can get,
West, East, and South, for a market, and it is here we clash with
France; for France not only does not develop the trade of her
colonies for her own profit, but stamps trade at large out by her
preferential tariffs, etc.; so that we cannot go into her colonies
and trade freely as she and Germany can come into ours.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 637 of 705
Words from 175703 to 176004
of 194943
