p. 16 | In French Africa

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 9, 1913

In French Africa

As an illustration of changes in hitherto little-known regions of Africa take the following statements by E. O. Powell, a geographical writer, speaking of the French territory:—

“Nothing, indeed, shows more graphically the civilizing work done by the French in these almost unknown lands than the means of communication, there being in operation to-day in French Africa 6,000 miles of railway, 25,000 miles of telegraph, and 10,000 miles of telephone. Think of being able to buy a round-trip ticket from Paris to Timbuktu; of sending Christmas or New-year greetings to your family by telegraph from the middle of the Sahara; or of sitting in the American consulate at Tamatave [Madagascar] and chatting with a friend at Antananarivo, three hundred miles away! And, as the final touch, they have erected a wireless installation at Fez [Morocco], by means of which his Shereefian Majesty dash-dotted his respects to the president of the republic at Paris.”