France, in consideration of success, has condoned all the blunders
of the Madagascar Expedition. The question was brought up on Wednesday in the form of a demand for inquiry into the sufferings of the soldiers, which the Radicals attributed to M. Ribot, the late Premier, who was even addressed as "assassin." M. Cavaignac admitted the suffer- ings and the deaths of three thousand five hundred men out of seventeen thousand, but attributed them not to M. Ribot, but to defects of organisation which the Government would correct, and to the absence of a Colonial army, which Govern- ment would raise, and which would include a transport corps of porters. He rejected the demand for a Com- mission of inquiry. The speech made a profound impression, as did a previous declaration by M. Berthelot that the Govern- ment would support the Queen in Madagascar, but that the treaty would be modified so as to increase French authority. An Order of the Day approving the declaration of the Govern- ment and congratulating the Army was therefore passed by 412 to 66. So far the Bourgeois Cabinet has defeated all opposition.
