18 APRIL 1903, Page 2

M. Loubet's journey in state to Algiers promises to be

a most successful one. It was imagined that the dependency, annoyed by the resignation of the popular Governor-General, M. Revoil, who has been censured by the Ministry for promoting accusations of bribery against the son of the French Premier, would receive the President coldly ; but this has not been the case. It has been recognised that M. Loubet is a Constitu- tional King, and Army, settlers, and Arab chiefs vie with each other to do him honour. His speech at a banquet on the day of his reception was a model in its dignity and patriotism. After graceful thanks to the Powers which had sent squad- rons to do him honour, the President declared that Algeria was "an extension of the land of France," and he trusted that "the period of experiments and trials" had come finally to an end. The Government in Algeria "pursued an ideal at once economic and moral," and he proposed a toast to her pros- perity "through the identification of her destinies with those of France." That is happy as an answer to those who fancy, in their desire for dependencies, that the great expenditure still necessary in the colony will ever induce Frenchmen either to sell or surrender the greatest of their transmarine possessions. The French peasant, who does not know where Tonquin is, has learned to regard Algeria as part, though a distant part, of France.