Some striking facts and figures with regard to the adminis-
tration of Tunis were brought to light in a debate in the French Chamber on Friday week. M. Andre Berthelot, who severely criticised the rule of M. Millet, the recently recalled French Resident, asserted that only forty French colonists had settled there in twenty years, while the Italians, who numbered eighty thousand, poured in at the rate of four hundred a year. In view of these facts he argued that foreigners were favoured, and deprecated the prospect of a group of French capitalists with a formidable Sicilian proletariate. Yet the total European population is only a little over a. hundred thousand, as against one million eight hundred thousand natives, while the French troops maintained in the country are estimated at sixteen thousand. M. Delcasse vindicated the administration of M. Millet, and contended that the influx of Italians had been exaggerated and was declining, but promised to stimulate French immigra- tion by the offer of cheap land. Tunis, in truth, is the para- dise of the small French official.
Previous page
