1 MARCH 1924, Page 10

The situation in the French Colonial dependencies and in the

British oversea dependencies is, therefore, entirely different, for in no British dependency is con- scription in force. The problems raised by the French policy of dependence in the military sense on the black man are very interesting ones, and the future can alone prove or disprove their wisdom. To the Anglo-Saxon onlooker it would seem that France is playing with fire. Will these hundreds of thousands of Africans, who have become familiar with European conditions, go back to their native desert and be content to be used as pawns in the game for European mastery ?