Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/946

 894 FRANCE: — REUNION — FRENCH SOMALIL1ND

REUNION.

Reunion (or Bourbon), about 420 miles east of Madagascar, has belonged to France since 1643. It is administered by a Governor assisted by a Privy Council, and an elective Council-General, and is represented in the French Parliament by a Senator and two Deputies. It has an area of 970 square miles and population (1912) of 173,822, of whom 169,218 were Europeans, 130,000 of French origin ; there were also 8,341 British Indians, 1,868 natives of Madagascar, 2,927 Africans, 884 Chinese, 584 Arabians. The chief towns are : St. Denis, with 23,972 inhabitants *m 1912; St. Pierre, 29,481 ; St. Paul, 18,646 ; St. Louis, 13,346. The towns are under the French municipal law. Reunion has a lycee with 24 teachers and 299 pupils. Primary education is given in a training school with 46 pupils and 7 teachers, and 169 elementary schools with 361 teachers and 17,808 pupils (1920). The chief port, Pointe-des-Galets, is connected by a coast railway of 80 miles with St. Benoit on the one hand, and St. Pierre on the other. In 1888 this railway Vas taken over by the State. The chief productions are sugar (62,000 acres), rum, coffee (6,000 acres), manioc, (12,000 acres), tapioca, vanilla, spices. The forests occupy aboiu 150,000 acres. There are 20 sugar factories in the island. The annual production of rum amounts to 1,166,000 gallons, of which 836,000 gallons are exported. The chief im- ports are rice, grain, &c. ; the chief exports are sugar and rum. Total value of imports in 1919, 41,759,750 francs ; of exports, 50,311,574 francs. In 1919, 65 vessels of 117,264 tons entered, and 67 vessels of 118,066 tons cleared at the ports of the island. There are about 80 miles of railway. The Tamatave- Reunion- Mauritius Telegraph Cable is open for traffic. On December 31, 1917, there were 233 miles of telephone wire, 242 miles of telegraph wire, 187 telephone stations and 34 telegraph offices. The budget for 1920 balanced at 12,170,760 francs. The debt was 1,122,500 francs. The currency of Re'union consists of local bank notes and token nickel coinage. It has nominally the same value as that of France.

St. Paul and Amsterdam, small islands in the Indian Ocean, belong to France.

Kerguelen, a desolate island, about 50 S. lat. and 70 E. long., was annexed by France in 1893.

British Consul at R6union. — M. J. T. Piat.

FRENCH SOMALILAND.

The colony of the Somali Coast lies between the Italian Colony of Eritrea and British Somaliland. On the north it Is bounded by Cape Doumeirah, which separates it from the Italian possessions ; «in the south by a line drawn from the wells of Hadou to Gueldessa, which separates it from the British possessions ; the inland boundary towards Abyssinia being, by convention of March 20, 1897, at a distance of 90 kilometres (about 56 miles) from the coast. The territory has an area of about 6,790 square miles, and the population was estimated in 1917 at about 206,000. It is administered by a Governor, assisted by an Administrative Council. The port of Obock was acquired for France in 1862, but it was not till 1884 that its active occupation began. In 1884 Sagallo and Tajurah were ceded to France ; in 1885, Ambado ; in 1888 the territory was delimited by agreement with Great Britain ; in 1888 a port was created at Djibouti, now the seat of government.

Djibouti has (1917) 13,608 inhabitants, of whom 294 are European (107 French). The natives are made up as follows (1917) : Issas, 3,954 ; Danakils, 1,184; Arabs (foreign subjects) 3,130; Arabs (French subjects),