The great value of our conquest appeared plainly a few months later, when the German Emperor let loose on the world the most awful war that ever convulsed the Universe: a Germano-Turkish mission, headed by Nuri Bey, a brother of Enver Pasha, the Turkish Minister of War, landed in Cyrenaica for the purpose of organizing, with the help of the Senoussists, an outbreak in Central Africa against the protectorates of France and Great Britain. This would have been an easy matter if our enemies had been able to establish their headquarters in Borkou, for they would then have been only a few hundred miles from German Bornou on one side, and on another from Dar Four and Dar Sula, which showed a certain hostility towards us. There is no doubt that, in this case, the Anglo-French campaign in the Cameroons would have been conducted in very different circumstances; when we take into consideration the large stock of arms and ammunition prepared by the Germans in their colony, and the care they had taken to fortify the mountain of Mora, we may suppose that the German staff had hoped to establish by main force a continental junction between the Cameroons and Turkey, through Kanem, Borkou, and Libya, in case of the communication by sea being cut off. And I do not think I shall betray any State secret by informing you that the Chad territory, with its modest resources in men and ammunition, would have been very difficult to defend with any chance of success against such an attack. I may also add that, had the Turco-Germans been able to accomplish their design, the result would have been exceedingly perilous for Franco-British rule throughout the whole of Dark Africa. By uniting, under my command, our frontier territories of the Libyan desert, the French Government’s aim was to constitute a force able to resist any attempts that might be made to retake from us the excellent base of operations that Borkou afforded. _Four Years in Borkou_ (1913-1917).—I do not think it would be of any great interest to lengthen this geographical lecture by explaining to you the difficulties of every kind that I was obliged to overcome during about four consecutive years, in order to fulfil the military task allotted to me. As Borkou produces little else but dates, and Ennedi scarcely anything at all, I was compelled to procure from Kanem and from Wadaï the corn, meat, and other food-stuffs necessary for the maintenance of my civil and military subordinates. Now, the organizing of the commissariat transport became more and more difficult every six months; the want of pasture along the roads we had to take, the incessant raids of the nomads and the counter-raids of my troops, caused irreparable losses among our camels. From the end of 1913 to the first months of 1917, the activity of the rebels was so great, owing to the instigation of the Turco-Senoussists, that my troops could get no rest.