Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-05-24
A HOLY WAR Is LIKELY.
Moroecans Hate France with Deadly
Venom.

Moroceans Hate France with Deadly
Venom.
The latest dispatches from Paris in
dicate the possibility Of the Moroccan
situation assuming a serious charac-
ter before long. Hostility to France
is undisguisedly fierce. No compro-
mise with foreigners Is the watchword
Of the sultans nominal subjects.
French, Italian, English and Ger
man colonists have fled from Mara
kesh to the coast The sultan's threat
to visit Marakesh Is laughed at. The
chieftains Of the big tribes and the
highland clans are buying up horses
in every market, partly for remounts,
but also so as to leave none for any
foreign expedition. Every repeating
rife-and some half million are said
to be in the country-is being oiled,
and ball cartridges are nearly double
their normal price.
Even the most authoritative news
cabled from Tangier wholly fails to
give an idea Of what is going on
throughout Morocco, which knows
neither sultan nor a foreign office.
The sultan's authority outside the
walls Of Fez and the seaports is abso-
,utely ignored by the vast mass of
his nominal subjects. His actual rev.
enue is practically limited to what Is
left Of the customs after the French
have taken their 60 percent. What the
father was wont to collect at the head
of a real army has dwindled to a pal
try fraction Of what 1t was fifteen
years ago.
All these years, while the Moorish
foreign office has been growing weak
er, the great fighting tribes have be-
come stronger and more arrogant.
Their savings, instead Of going to the
Fee treasury, have been invested In
horses, rifles and ammunition. The
suggestion that they should help their
sovereign lord with military contin-
g.nt is derided. Let him come to us
If he can, is their position. Thus af-
ter a decade Of more or less practical
llnQeDeUQe1Ce,
creasing accumulation Of arms and
cartridges, the real fighting strength
of Morocco is considerably greater
than it has been within a half CEN
tury.
The leaders Of the national party
regard France with unqualified, fierce
| hostility. There is not a dissenting
vote. It would be futile to ignore the
fact that whatever the nominal sultan
may say or do Morocco the real fight
ing Morocco will accept no compro-
mise giving any foreign power the
internal affairs of Islam. So long as
seaports only are affected the resist
ance may continue to be Of the passive
kind. but signs are not lacking that
any attempt to establish so apparently
harmless an institution as a French
hospital at Marakesh might easily
precipitate the outburst of a storm.
The sultan's viceroy Prince Abdul
Hafid the nominal viceroy of Mara
kesh, has his own game to play. He
has not the power even If he had the
will to resist a great popular move
ment. His strength is not from Fee
but from the support Of nominal vas
sails of the crown, who, however will
ing they, may be to handle French
gold, have no intention to submitting
to foreign dictation.
Things having come to the present
press, it would seem that France must
make UP her mind either to retire
and allow Moroccan affairs to take
their normal course or give her ad-
vance agents a free hand to stir up. a
massacre whereby a preteXt would be
found for further occupations OF
Moorish territory. What then? More
massacres to be Immediately followed
by more occupations and then the
long predicted holy war, grim and
earnest.