On Tuesday Renter's Agency published a very interesting interview with
Colonel Shervinton, who has just returned from Madagascar, where it will be remembered that he held the position of Commander-in-Chief. He resigned because the Hovas would not adopt the means of defence against the French which he suggested. Though he thinks the Hovas have thrown away their best chance of stopping the French advance, be is by no means sure that they will not still find the native force quite capable of giving a good account of itself. The present position of the French is not by any means satisfactory. Far from their principal difficulties having been surmounted, they have only just begun. It is -true that great obstacles have been overcome, but now they have to deal with mountain ranges and to pass through the fever-stricken district of Vonizongo. Up to the present, the French troops have bad to make roads at an altitude of 1,500 ft. at the most, but they have yet to scale the heights of Fihaonana, thirty-five miles from the capital, and the chief town of the Vonizongo district of Imerina, at least 6,000 ft. above sea-level. " My own opinion," he adds, " is that the Malagasy will make a stand at Babay, a mountain ridge which the French cannot well avoid." Many of the Hovas are, be says, well armed ; and he declares that, in the matter of machine-guns and artillery, they are better provided than the French. For all that, the French are quite certain to beat. It is only a question of what it will cost the French in money and chagrin.
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