 He further complained , " Notables , with their diminished influence , are almost inert in relation to the growing number of their recalcitrant subjects " and suggested that a chief could hardly control more than 5 @,@ 000 people . Atangana is not even mentioned in a French report on their African leaders from 1939 . However , he retained the right to announce the appointment of new chiefs and to claim that both he and the French had selected them . 
