Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-02
THE WAR CLOUD IN MOROCCO

ss.TAa+ -the sultan of Morocco should he hard pressed by native rival IS nothing new. For years every sultan has had to fight for his throne. Ill the present rebellion IncAo would pc no cause for special interest, mucl ess for the f1utter of alarm which the news is causing in Europe, were it not tRat the Moroccan trouble has far wA1er bearings than the mere domestic eon- cerns of the sultanate
 The truth is that Morocco has for a long time been regarded as a possible explosion point. Within q twelve month Mr Bryce, with that sagacity and stored information that mark him out among statesmen, has predicted that Morocco would be the next scene of imperiallstic exploitation Lord Salisbufy Himself. as far back as 1891, gaNal itAaAshis opinion that Morocco woAlfd Aohe day be "as great a trouble to- Europe, and carry with it as2 great menace to the peace of Europe, as the other Mohammedan countries fur ther to the east used. to be twenty or thirty years ago. As Sir John Drum mohd sHay.~-the British minister sAt Tahgier pointed out as longg ago as 1889, ''the rivalry and Jealousy of&for- eign powers about Nloroccog proceed from a knowledge of the important E position it holds at the entrance of the Mediterranean" What the English staetReaff1s insist upon is that the pos x session of Ceuta or Tangier by a real Sgly powerful and hostile nation would almost destroy the value of Gibraltar. Now if Tangier is to fall from the < hands of the sultan, and Ceuta is to goa tlie way of other Spanish colonies, who is to pick them up?
 That Morocco will sooner or later ex- perience the fate of the other Moham- ,medan countries in North Africa-self- governing as they all once were-has long seemed inevitable. Egypt, Trip oli, Tunis. Algeria--o one after another has fallen into the dominion of the hated infidel What reason to expect that the extreme western outpost should hold out, after the intervening .stron gholds have faEen? The eyes of all ATohammedans are more and more ssturned towards Constantinople. 1t is . Eetreat on the center that they think of snow, not new conquests. nor even hold ing tenaciously what they have won y The Turkish empire shows sings of dying at the extremities, and Morocco is one of them. The sultanate has. be sssides, been closely hemmed in and al ssmost invaded by foreigners. The French have steadily pushed westward from Algiers, and the common iexpec tation in France has been that all the littoral up to the Straits would one day be under the tri-color. The Franco Spanish entente, including. as it has { been supposed. a. secret treaty covering new delimitatiOns in Ncrth Africa, has been taken as a sure index to French ambitions in Mproceo. With this has been put, by suspicious observers 1T England and the Dreibund the fac that Russia not long since established an embassy in nfTangier This was helf fo be, in view Of the circumstances tha- there are practically moi Russians il the sultanatey somewhat ostentatiou, notification that the Franco-Russiar I alliance was going to have somethins 70 say about the partition of Morocco.
 lnese, then, are the conflicting inter ests now centering about Morocco. w zee the expectant heirs gathered abou Fne death bed. By advantage of loca ton, France should come in for tn, greatest reversion of territory in tbt break-uR if it occurs. But there vii be a very strong military and Gallop hobe party in England to protes against allowing the French flag to fl, over against ''the Rock" It is possi ble that mutual jealousies may mak, so strongly for the preservation of th, status quo that the tottering power O Morocco may be further propped LII and given the semblance of a goip, copSern. Possibly new Anglo Frencl treaty of African delimitation may set tie the whole question amicably. Fo the United States the occasion is ob !. yi0usly one for thanking our stars tha here at any rate, Is an internationa problem with which we are not calle, udoon1t to meddle. What a sigh of relic aye should all breathe if the Philip pines were to us even as Moroccc!- !- New York Evening Post.