Aepyornis Island

The soft-eyed, soft-voiced people of Madagascar speak a liquid language in which there is no word for time. Under French administration, however, most of the Malagasy (as ethnologists call them) have had a few years' schooling. Some have even taken posts in the Colonial Government and learned the European world view. They know what time is. and how fast it can run. Last week they wondered how Madagascar fitted into the Axis time scheme.

Fourth largest of the world's islands, Madagascar is 241,094 square miles in area. It lies only 240 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa, athwart the United Nations' sea lane around the Cape of Good Hope to the Persian Gulf, to India and Australia. If Japan had Madagascar, the Axis would threaten the whole Indian Ocean. Madagascar is 3,800 miles from Java and 7,200 from Tokyo--not as far as Australia is from the U.S.

Following Portuguese, Dutch and British pioneers, the French first got a foothold on the island at the end of the 17th Century. In the 19th Century they started developing one of the world's best natural harbors, Diego-Suarez on Madagascar's northeast coast. Diego-Suarez is defended by ancient 75 and 90 mm. guns; on the whole island there are only 5,000 troops, French and Senegalese, with a sprinkling of natives. Of the 40,000 whites, most of the small fry are anti-Vichy; most of the Government, Army and other important people are pro-Vichy. Despite the nearness of Africa, the Malagasy are Oceanic (Polynesian, Melanesian, Indonesian) in origin, language and culture.

They still tell of a great bird, called Aepyornis by paleontologists, which used to roam the island until a few thousand years ago. Aepyornis was ten feet tall, could not fly, laid eggs bigger than footballs. The Malagasy still find an occasional Aepyornis egg and sell it for as much as five or ten head of cattle to the Frenchmen, who then sell it to a collector or museum for as much as five or ten thousand dollars.

Last week the chance that Madagascar could escape World War II seemed as rare as an Aepyornis egg. Madagascar's four railroads total only 534 miles of track, but there are 16,000 miles of roads passable to automobiles--or armored divisions--in the dry season, which begins next month and lasts until November. The island produces lumber, sugar, coffee, manioc, maize, cacao, vanilla, tobacco. It has some of the world's richest graphite mines. Doubtless the Axis would welcome these trifles in addition to a base dominating the western Indian Ocean.

Word reached London that Vichy had sent two cruisers and three transports from Dakar to Madagascar. Vichy said it would fight for the island if necessary. Allied strategists wondered whether that meant a fight only to prevent the Allies from moving in first.

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