La Tribune de Madagascar
- A Report
- Illicit Price Rises and Profits
- In Syria
This front page of La Tribune de Madagascar, dated 7 October 1926, carried three substantial items. A column signed by Senator Maurice Ordinaire, apparently drawn from his own report to the Senate, dealt with France's colonial wireless network: planned in 1911 and begun in 1917 with four large stations including Tananarive, it was slowed by postwar shortages, so that Tananarive opened only in 1925 and Brazzaville was still idle after some forty million had been spent. A news note explained plans to revive, in amended form, the repealed 1916 law against illicit price rises and to amend Article 419 of the Penal Code, while urging caution. A report from Syria complained that colonial readers had been fed sanitized news and described the revolt around Damascus, the Djebel Druze and Hama, with Europeans evacuated under fire and a passenger train attacked.
Translation
A Report
[?] today [?] complement to its submarine network, wireless telegraphy can take the place of submarine telegraphy at lower cost. The war period had roused our activity in this field, as in all others. The Ministries of War, the Navy and Posts agreed to carry out the programme for an international network drawn up in 1911, which provided for the construction of four large colonial stations, at Bamako, Brazzaville, Tananarive and Saigon. Work began in 1917. A decree of 31 July 1919, which is, as it were, the charter of our colonial radiotelegraphy, divided the construction and operation of the network as follows: to the Postal administration, the base stations in metropolitan France and the large intercolonial stations; to the colonial governments, the local networks. After the peace, enthusiasm slackened. Those who defend the government's conduct point to supply difficulties, a consequence of the postwar economic disorder, and to the lack of local resources in distant colonies. Be that as it may, the Saigon station, begun in 1917, was not put into service until 1923, those at Bamako and Tananarive only in 1925, and the Brazzaville station is still not working. In the meantime our financial difficulties arose, or rather grew worse. Some forty million have already been spent on the intercolonial network since 1921. Estimates put at between 10 and 20 million, depending on power, the cost of a large radiotele-
Illicit Price Rises and Profits
…prescribed in order to establish the offence. This 1916 law was repealed. There is now talk of bringing it back into force, but amended on a proposal by M. de Moro Giafferi and some of his colleagues, so as to make its provisions both easier to apply and more effective. The Senate will have to examine the new bill shortly after the reopening; there is no doubt that a favourable vote will be secured. Moreover, the Keeper of the Seals, Barthou, has made it known that it was indispensable to amend Article 419 of the Penal Code, the text of which we give following this note. The conditions to which this article is subject too often make it difficult to apply. In these matters—illicit price rises, illicit profits—caution is called for. The history of the legislation on illicit speculation in the postwar years is a lamentable history. As it was impossible to define the offence exactly, people were floundering in [?]
In Syria
[?] certain that the [?] which reached us here were only carefully revised, corrected and simplified summaries. What is more, we were told in particular that the revolution which convulsed Damascus had been suppressed; in reality, "the state of exceptional circumstances," as in England, still continues. The Damascus revolution broke out on 3 July 1924; it was violent until the end of September, then came the disaster of the Djebel Druze, first with the Normand column, then with the Michaud column, then the burning of Hama on 5 October, and finally the 3 days of Damascus on 18, 19 and 20 October. Most of the houses inhabited by Europeans were evacuated, being threatened with fire, and the journey to the shelters was made under the whistle of bullets. The rebels' attacks on the city, encircled by a network of barbed wire, were furious. One could leave the city only by train, a means that was in any case hardly safe, since a passenger train was attacked at the gates of the city. The defence lasted no less than three hours. Seven people were killed, among them a lieutenant and three soldiers. A relief armoured train dispersed the rebel groups.
Context
Why France needed wireless links to Madagascar
The column's opening claim, that wireless could replace submarine telegraphy at lower cost, addressed a real weakness in French communications. A 1926 note in the Annales de géographie counted only 156 French cables, totalling 66,000 km, among the world's ocean lines, and described France's Indian Ocean links as two small isolated fragments: one from Saint-Denis in Réunion to Tamatave, the other from Majunga to Mozambique. The same note says that when the war broke out France was exposed to a rupture of its relations with its colonies and avoided it only because British cables were placed at its disposal; that necessity pushed it to organize a radiotelegraph network in earnest. For readers in Tananarive, whose new station the column names, the subject was therefore direct contact with France without dependence on foreign or fragile cables.
From failed pre-war bills to the 1919 'charter'
The column's chronology agrees with the 1926 geographical note on the main points. According to that note, the pre-war bills for a radio network failed to win approval from the Chamber of Deputies; during the war the Ministries of War, the Navy and Posts agreed to build four large colonial stations at Bamako, Brazzaville, Tananarive and Saigon, and work began in 1917. The note also attributes the description of the decree of 31 July 1919 as 'the charter of our colonial radiotelegraphy' to the rapporteur of the Senate's Public Works Committee. Maurice Ordinaire's column uses the same phrase, and the page signs him as senator and rapporteur, so the 'report' of its heading is most likely that Senate committee report itself, with the column reproducing an extract of his own report for colonial readers. The commissioning dates it gives for Saigon, Bamako and Tananarive, and the figure of some forty million spent since 1921, are the column's own and are not independently confirmed by the sources consulted here.
The 1916 price-rise law and a recurring dispute
The note on illicit price rises refers to a wartime law of 1916 that had since been repealed. A Le Petit Parisien article of 23 September 1922, written in defence of commerce, identified it as the law of 20 April 1916 and called it a chimera, horribly burdensome to all transactions yet absolutely ineffective. The same 1922 writer argued that keeping the wartime offence of illicit price rise in penal law would be disastrous, and that existing Penal Code articles, including Article 420, were enough to punish hoarders and genuine speculators. The 1926 note's call for caution and its verdict that postwar speculation legislation was 'lamentable' thus continued a dispute already open four years earlier. The proposal it credits to M. de Moro Giafferi came from Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, a well-known criminal lawyer who had entered the Chamber as a deputy for Corsica in 1919. The paper's forecast of a favourable Senate vote and Barthou's call to amend Article 419 are its own report; the sources here do not show what the Senate finally did.
How the paper's Syrian chronology compares with the record
The Syrian report is a first-hand account whose writer stresses that official news reaching the colonies had been softened. Historians date the Great Syrian Revolt, a general uprising across the State of Syria and Greater Lebanon, to 1925–1927. The paper's '3 July 1924' for the outbreak therefore stands a year earlier than the independent record. Its date for Hama fits 1925: the burning of Hama on 5 October matches the two-day Hama uprising of 4–5 October 1925 led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji, so the printed year is probably a misprint or a reading error rather than a different chronology. The 'disaster of the Djebel Druze' belongs to the revolt's opening phase, when Sultan al-Atrash's forces won at al-Kafr on 21 July and al-Mazraa on 2 August 1925, and the Druze annihilated a French relief column before taking the fort at al-Suwayda.
Why the revolt was still not over in October 1926
The writer's complaint that the colonies had been told the Damascus revolution was crushed matches the military situation when the paper went to press. After its early defeats, France sent thousands of troops from Morocco and Senegal, equipped with modern weapons, to Syria and Lebanon; this let it retake many cities, but resistance continued until the spring of 1927. When a full amnesty was offered again in February 1926, the rest of the country was pacified, but the Jebel Druze and Damascus remained in revolt. In October 1926, therefore, the scenes the report describes around Damascus, with a barbed-wire perimeter, a passenger train attacked at the city gates and an armoured relief train, belonged to a war that was still going on, not to a closed episode.
Original
Un rapport
[?] aujourd'hui [?] complément de son réseau sous-marin, la T. S. F. peut se substituer, à moindres frais, à la télégraphie sous-marine. La période de guerre avait réveillé, en cette matière comme en toutes autres, notre activité. Les ministères de la Guerre, de la Marine et des Postes se mirent d'accord pour exécuter le programme d'un réseau international établi en 1911, comportant la construction de quatre grandes stations coloniales, à Bamako, Brazzaville, Tananarive et Saïgon. Les travaux commencèrent en 1917. Un décret du 31 Juillet 1919, qui est comme la charte de notre radiotélégraphie coloniale, répartissait comme suit l'exécution et l'exploitation du réseau: à l'administration des Postes les stations de base dans la Métropole et les grandes stations intercoloniales, aux gouvernements coloniaux les réseaux locaux. Après la paix, l'ardeur se ralentit. Les défenseurs de l'action gouvernementale allèguent les difficultés de l'approvisionnement, conséquence du trouble économique d'après-guerre, et l'absence des ressources locales dans des colonies lointaines. Quoi qu'il en soit, le poste de Saïgon, commencé en 1917, ne fut mis en service qu'en 1923, ceux de Bamako et de Tananarive en 1925 seulement, et la station de Brazzaville ne fonctionne pas encore. Sur ces entrefaites, sont survenus, ou plutôt se sont aggravés, nos embarras financiers. Une quarantaine de millions ont déjà été dépensés, depuis 1921, pour le réseau intercolonial. On évalue entre 10 et 20 millions, selon la puissance, le coût d'une grande station radiotélé -
Hausse et bénéfices illicites
prescrites en vue de déterminer le délit. Cette loi de 1916 fut abrogée. Il est aujourd'hui question de la remettre en vigueur, mais modifiée sur une proposition de M. de Moro Giafferi et de quelques-uns de ses collègues, afin d'en rendre les prescriptions à la fois plus facilement applicables et plus efficaces. Le Sénat aura à examiner le nouveau projet peu après la rentrée; il n'est pas douteux qu'un vote favorable ne soit acquis. D'autre part, le garde des Sceaux Barthou a fait connaître qu'il était indispensable de modifier l'article 419 du code pénal, dont nous donnons le texte à la suite de la présente note. Les conditions auxquelles est subordonné cet article en rendant l'application trop souvent difficile. En ces matières: hausse illicite, bénéfices illicites, il convient d'être prudent. L'histoire de la législation sur la spéculation illicite dans les années d'après guerre est une histoire lamentable. Comme il était impossible de déterminer exactement le délit, on nageait en [?]
En Syrie
[?] certain que les [?] qui nous sont parvenues ici n'étaient que des résumés soigneusement revus, corrigés et simplifiés. Encore, nous a-t-on dit notamment que la révolution qui bouleversa Damas avait été réprimée; en réalité, «l'état de circonstances exceptionnelles,» comme en Angleterre, dure toujours. La révolution de Damas éclata le 3 Juillet 1924, elle fut violente jusqu'en fin Septembre, puis ce fut I - désastre du Djebel Druze avec la colonne Normand d'abord, avec la colonne Michaud ensuite, puis l'incendie de Hama le 5 Octobre, enfin les 3 journées de Damas les 18, 19 et 20 Octobre. La plupart des maisons habitées par des Européens furent évacuées, étant menacées d'incendie, et pour gagner les refuges ce fut sous le sifflement des balles que s'effectuait le trajet. Les attaques des rebelles sur la ville encerclée d'un réseau de fils de fer barbelés étaient furieuses. On ne pouvait quitter la ville que par le train, moyen d'ailleurs peu sûr, puisqu'un train de voyageurs fut attaqué aux portes de la ville. La défense ne dura pas moins de trois heures. Sept personnes furent tuées, dont un lieutenant et trois soldats. Un train blindé de secours dispersa les groupes rebelles.