On Tuesday, the reverse at Bac-Le was made the excuse
for a general discussion in the Chamber of the position at Tonquin. The Under-Secretary for the Colonies, M. Jamais, explained that there are now twenty-one thousand troops in Tonquin, of whom eight thousand are French and the rest natives. Members of the Right intervened during the speech with objections to young soldiers being sent to Tonquin, and demanded that special troops should be organised in order to spare the Home Army. On this, M. Jamais, in the name of the Government, declared that it was " an absolute necessity to give to this country the necessary instrument of its Colonial policy,—namely, a Colonial Army." Ultimately the following resolution was carried : " The Chamber, having confidence that the Government will hasten the constitution of the Colonial Army, passes to the order of the day." Until the Colonial Army is created, it is clear that the French Govern- ment will not be free from its Chinese and African worries. The idea that the Home Army is being disorganised by the drafts for the Colonies, is a perfect nightmare to the ordinary Frenchman, and makes him magnify every petty skirmish into a disaster.
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