the abortive operations near Festubert embarked on a few days later; and the important victory won in Sept. in the region of Loos. During the seventeen months that' the field-marshal led the British troops in the field, these rose, excluding cavalry, from an original total of five divisions at the front to a total of 34 divisions; these he had organized as three armies. His forces up till the last three months suffered greatly from a lack of artillery ammunition, except during the opening weeks of the campaign; this hampered his operations to an extent not experienced by his successor. He resigned in Dec., Sir D. Haig taking his place, and he returned to England, to be raised to the peerage as Vis- count French of Ypres and High Lake in recognition of his great services. He then became commander-in-chief in the United Kingdom, and he held that appointment until May 1918, when he was selected to be Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. This position he occupied under most trying conditions until early in 1921, the political state of the country growing worse and worse. On resigning he was rewarded with an earldom.
At the end of the war, Lord French published his personal narrative under the title, " 1914."
FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA (Afrique Equatoriale Fran-
Qaise; or A.E.F.), formerly FRENCH CONGO (see 11.99), is an immense region stretching from the mouth of the Congo to Tripoli, from the Atlantic to Egypt, covering an area of about
870,000 sq. miles. It is therefore more than four times the size of
France. The coast is but little developed and is as a rule flat and
sandy. There are few good ports. At a short distance from the
Atlantic the country rises to a plateau between 2,300 and 2,700
ft. high, in which lies the vast depression of the closed basin of
the Chad. The chief characteristic of the colony is its magnificent
river system. It has the Congo for a distance of 370 m. of its
course of 2,500 m., its great tributaries (the Sanga or Sangha and
Ubangi), the Ogowe (801 m.), and the huge expanse of Lake
Chad, which receives the water of the whole of the Schari and
Logone valleys. In natural characteristics there are two clearly
distinct zones forest aad brush. Tropical forest with luxuriant
vegetation and intense animal life covers the Gabun and the
valleys of the Sanga and Ubangi ; brush reigns up to and beyond
Lake Chad. The climate is extremely humid and painfully hot.
Estimates of the population range from 6 to 10 millions. Sleeping sickness is very prevalent. There are many different races and varied types among the natives, but two main groups can be recognized. There are the sedentary people of the forest zone who are very savage and occasionally cannibal, but can adapt themselves to agriculture, and the Nomad tribes of the brush country who are warlike herdsmen influenced by Islam.
A.E.F. is a colony of special growth. Its frontiers were laid down by diplomacy before the country had been explored. The main steps in French occupation of Equatorial Africa were: (I.) Foundation of French Congo (1842-82), and the great exploration expeditions of de Brazza. (II.) The Berlin Confer- ence and the General Act of 1889 which established international understanding with regard to freedom of navigation and trade in basins and mouths of the Congo and the Niger, and as to the formalities to be observed in order to make the fresh occupations of Africa effective. (III.) The period of political and diplomatic action over the Congo between 1889 and 1909, when a number of Boundary Conventions were signed. (IV.) French expansion towards the Upper Nile, which gave rise to the Fashoda incident (1898) and a declaration in 1899 in which the eastern limits of the French zone of influence in West Africa were laid down. (V.) French expansion in the Chad. The work of the great ex- plorers Crampel, Maistre, Gentil and Maj. Lamy brought about the realization of the ambitious plan of linking up, through Lake Chad, the oases of Algeria and the shores of the Ubangi.
In 1911, following upon the Agadir incident, A.E.F. enabled France to compensate Germany for the rights she ceded to France in Morocco. The colony then lost nearly 100,000 sq. m. of territory, which was joined on to German Cameroon. This was restored by the Treaty of Versailles.
Administration. A.E.F. is an amalgamation of four different colonies under a governor-general. This post was created by decree June 26 1908, and a further decree Jan. 15 1910 gave definite form to the new administration.
The Government General of French Equatorial Africa consists of the following colonies:
Gabun (cap. Libreville) 104,000 sq. m. Middle Congo (cap. Brazzaville) 89,000 sq. m. Ubangi-Schari (cap. Bang!) 193,000 sq. m. Chad (March 17 1920) 482.000 sq. m.
The supreme administrative head is the governor-general who resides at Brazzaville. The different colonies preserve their adminis- trative and financial autonomy and are governed by lieutenant- governors with the exception of the Chad, which has either a civil or a military administrator. A government council assists the governor-general, who has his delegates in Paris at the Office Colonial and at the Supreme Colonial Council.
Colonization. The policy pursued with regard to colonization of this vast country has not been very successful. Big concessions have been given to large colonizing companies for the economic develop- ment of large tracts of country. Of 40 concessionary companies only very few have proved successful. The only benefit derived from this system has been that river transport has been organized and the resources of the country have been made known. The great draw- back in A.E.F. is lack of transport. The rivers provide practically the only means of communication, and the execution of the plan of railway construction is urgently desirable. A bill authorizing a loan of 171,000,000 francs for the construction and improvement of all methods of communication was approved in 1920.
Products. Natural produce is varied. Rubber is the chief vegetable resource. It has so far been found impossible to establish practical rubber plantations, and the rubber output of the colony is wild. Rubber exports, naturally, suffered from the world crisis. Exports in 1913 were 1, 600 tons, 1914 600 tons, 1915 1,400 tons, 1917 3,000 tons, 1920 2,140 tons worth 14,156,000 francs. The quality is undeniably good, but there is no great demand for this type of rubber on the French market.
The oil palm is the next important resource. It is very widely distributed but was but little exploited before the war. The export of kernels has been greatly encouraged by the administration and has attracted European firms, thanks to which the export figure for 1920 was nearly 7,000 tons of the value of over 4,000,000 francs. Tobacco and cotton grow wild in the colony. Cocoa and coffee cultivation is on the increase and is attracting attention from European firms. Of all the French colonies A.E.F. is the most richly wooded, 54,000 sq. m. being covered by dense forest, in which the presence of mahogany and rosewood, of tulip and walnut, show the diversity of this almost inexhaustible source of wealth. Before long the annual log production will amount to 450,000 tons. In 1921 the figure was 150,000 tons. Exports in 1920 amounted to 66,000 tons of a value ol 6,238,000 francs. The possibility of producing wood-pulp on a large scale has to be borne in mind.
So many elephants have been killed that there are large stocks of ivory in the country. Exports of ivory in 1920 amounted to 93,636 kgm., worth 4,700,000 francs.
The export of whale-oil has been recently started. There are large herds of sheep and cattle in the brush country of the northern dis- tricts, which will become of increasing value as it is opened up.
There would seem to be a mining future before the country. But few companies have been floated and the underground wealth is still but little known. Copper exists with a yield of 45%. and mines are in some places already being worked, but in a rudimentary fashion, on a belt of about 60 m. in the middle Congo. Railways alone can bring about the proper development of this district, which is 190 m. from the coast.
General Trade reached its top pre-war figure in 1913 with 57,846,000 francs. It fell to just over 22,000,000 francs in 1915 and has since slowly picked up. In 1920 the total was 49,801,000 francs, a figure partly due to inflated prices. There are signs, however, of a return to the normal progress in trade. Imports accounted for over 18,000,000 francs of this sum. (G. A.; M. R.*)
FRENCH LITERATURE (igiorzi). The period just preceding the World War was one of considerable activity in French literature. Never had thought taken on more varied aspects. Romanticism, classicism, naturalism were all living and thriving side by side with other theories, not to speak of aberrations and follies. A literary critic had counted no fewer than 55 literary "schools," groups or coteries, chiefly made up of young writers, but including not a few who had already won their laurels. Indeed, the tendency had for some time been the breaking-up into groups, each with its particular dogmas and formulas. There was a profusion of ideas; there were even a little confusion and anarchy. The dominant note was a youthful optimism. Men of genius were discovered on all sides; a new and great era was supposed to be opening up for France, which had successfully weathered some tremendous storms and had again taken her place amongst the leading nations of the world. Never had so many people been writing, and never had literary form been
