The French Press is beginning to grow uneasy about Madagascar,
and the Government is being asked to give more explicit information in order to quiet the fears of those who are misled by false and slanderous rumours as to the difficulties which the national forces have encountered. As yet, however, the Government have made no announcement which can be regarded as really reassuring. On Thursday the Paris papers contained letters and telegrams from the front, but they none of them explain the failure of the expedition to move. Probably there has been no actual disaster, but the task has obviously proved far more difficult than was at first expected. The health of the troops has been bad, and the difficulties of transport and commissariat have been appalling. So slow, indeed, has been the rate of march that it is very doubtful if the French will now reach Antananarivo before the rains. If they do not, the situation will be most perilous, and the cost in life and money terrific. The best chance for the French is that the Hovas, alarmed by the advance and by the growth of the French party, will make peace at once. According to a telegram from Antananarivo in Tuesday's Times, there are already symptoms of this policy being followed. Another telegram states, however, that the feeling against all Europeans is rising, and that the British Vice-Consul has warned all the Englishmen in the capital to leave without delay, on the ground that the Hovas are determined to resist the French. Yet another telegram asserts that the Hovas have cut in pieces a large body of French native auxiliaries. How far these items of news are true, it is impossible to say. The one fact that is clear is that the expedition is moving with dis- quieting slowness, and that the French Government have nothing very pleasant to communicate to the people.
