It thus made no sense to ask them to defend French national territory. Recruitment in this con- text could only turn them against France. "What," he asked in a di- rect rebuke to Panty, "do Africans care about duty to the mother- land?" France's entire approach to governing Africans, he concluded bitterly, was to treat them as French citizens each time it was a question of obligations and duties, and to treat them as subjects each time it was a question of rights or privileges.

Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The …, loc. 502