ABSTRACT
After the World War, as before, France held second place to Great Britain in the extent, population, distribution, and importance of her colonial possessions. These two powers had been the principal beneficiaries of the treaties of Versailles and Sevres. The colonial problems of France fall under six heads: the place of France in the Near East, the place of France in the Far East and in the Pacific, the relations between France and her scattered colonies, the political consolidation of the north African empire, the military value of the colonies, and the economic exploitation of the colonies. The evolution of French foreign and colonial policy, culminating in the treaty of Versailles at the end of a successful war, has tended principally to the creation of a consolidated North African empire. Social and economic conditions in France militate against recruiting high-grade men for service abroad.
