La Tribune de Madagascar
- The fight against malaria in Tananarive
- Paris and foreigners
- On the postal and telegraph services
The paper argues that malaria measures fit local conditions poorly and condemns hostile treatment of foreigners in Paris as an oversimplified response to economic pressures. Its postal column separately argues for better terms to restore European staffing in Madagascar, drawing a comparison with French West Africa.
Selected, image-checked first-page passages; partial reading, not complete articles or the whole page.
Translation
The fight against malaria in Tananarive
It is rather strange that, despite undeniable efforts, malaria persists and tends to increase in the Highlands generally, and in Tananarive in particular, to the point of seriously obstructing the material progress of colonization.
There is certainly no shortage of texts, reports, circulars, orders, even decrees. But public health cannot be managed that way. Most of the prescribed measures have, moreover, proved ineffective almost everywhere; in practice they are ill suited to local needs, financial resources and, more seriously, scientific realities.
Paris and foreigners
Some foreigners who were in Paris in June had a surprise that was not in their travel itineraries. As they passed, they heard shouts that bore no resemblance to cheers or welcomes. This is deeply regrettable: conduct unworthy of France.
The people of Paris, whose intelligence and keen tact we all know, must beware of their first impulse. The economic phenomenon arousing this popular feeling is very complex; it cannot be judged as summarily as it is by those jeers.
On the postal and telegraph services
According to a document before us, senior postal and telegraph employees in French West Africa are the most favourably treated of all civil servants. Applications consequently pour in, leaving the administration with its pick of candidates.
It would be desirable for the same to be true in Madagascar, where the European staff would acquire—or rather, no, regain—the standing it once enjoyed.
Context
Why regulations alone could not stop malaria
Malaria is transmitted by infected Anopheles mosquitoes, so reducing transmission requires measures that actually reach the places and people at risk. The editorial’s complaint is about that practical gap: administrative activity produces documents, while disease persists. Its emphasis on local conditions and money makes the dispute one about the design and delivery of public health, rather than the mere existence of a health administration.
Whose progress was public health meant to serve?
The first paragraph measures malaria’s cost in terms of the material advance of colonization. That framing links disease control to the ambitions of colonial development, even while the article demands better practical measures. It helps explain the urgency of the argument: persistent illness is presented as a failure of the colony’s administration and economic project, not simply a private misfortune suffered by individual patients.
Economic resentment and the welcome offered to visitors
The Paris column turns a street incident into an argument about civic conduct. It recognizes an economic grievance behind the hostility, yet appeals to the city’s intelligence and national reputation against a reflexive attack on foreigners. That tension is its subject: residents can feel harmed by economic change while visitors become the visible targets of anger over forces that no single traveller controls.
A colonial administration competing for staff
The postal column treats pay and prospects as tools for recruiting qualified officials. French West Africa supplies the comparison: favourable conditions supposedly give its administration a choice among many applicants. The desired beneficiaries in Madagascar are specifically European staff. Thus a seemingly technical question about postal services also exposes the article’s priorities within a colonial workforce divided by status and origin.
Original
La Lutte Antipaludique à Tananarive
Il est assez singulier que, malgré d’incontestables efforts, le paludisme persiste et tende à s’accroître sur les Hauts-Plateaux en général, à Tananarive en particulier, au point d’être un obstacle sérieux aux progrès matériels de la colonisation.
Ce ne sont cependant pas les textes, rapports, circulaires, arrêtés, décrets même qui manquent, mais l’hygiène ne se règle pas ainsi et les mesures prescrites, restées d’ailleurs pour la plupart et presque partout inopérantes, sont, en fait, mal adaptées aux nécessités locales, aux ressources financières et, fait plus grave, aux réalités scientifiques.
Paris et les étrangers
Certains étrangers qui se trouvaient à Paris en Juin y ont eu une surprise que ne prévoyaient pas les programmes de leur séjour. Ils ont entendu sur leur passage des cris qui n'avaient rien de commun avec des acclamations et des souhaits de bienvenue et c'est là un fait profondément regrettable : un geste qui n'est pas français.
La population parisienne, nous la connaissons tous, si intelligente, au tact si aiguisé, doit se méfier de son premier mouvement. Le phénomène économique contre lequel s'élève ce sentiment populaire est, en effet, très complexe et ne comporte pas un jugement aussi sommaire que celui qui se traduit par des huées.
A propos des P.T.T.
D'après un document que nous avons sous les yeux, les agents des Postes et Télégraphes dans les cadres supérieurs sont, en A.O.F., les plus avantagés parmi les fonctionnaires, il en résulte qu'il y a pléthore de demandes et que, par la suite, la direction n'a que l'avantage du choix.
Il serait à souhaiter qu'il en en fût de même à Madagascar où le cadre Européen prendrait, ou plutôt non, reprendrait l'importance qu'il y eut à un moment donné.