The Nome daily nugget., 1907-12-14
MOROCCO THE KEY TO AN EMPIRE

ST JOHN.-W. G. Fitzgerald, the recognized authority on matters per | taining to Morocco, thus writes of Nor occO, the Derelict of Diplomacy, in the Review of Reviews; and in the light of present time occurrences the article is of exceptional interest.
 The strangest thing l know is that Morocco. the worlds richest prize, should have remained intact unto this day. Thirteen legations and consul ates general costly out of all propor staggering dereiict on 'he spot in Tan gier. And have we not seen the two Greatt st military Invi.ts on earth at daggcrS drawn over the spoil, and q terrib:e crisis avertcd only by the back ing down of France at Won Buelow's will, followed by the breaking of | eisn TinISter Franc sver had?
 Nome people are asking: Why all | this excitement over semi savage Barbary state which many of us pie ture as worthless desert, peopled only ] by byacks?" Because from the view points of strategy, climate and mineral unique, with potential trade-given a couple of decades of development-of s2OO, 900 900 a year.
 Looking around We see all the na tions struggling for existence, for new markets. for new outlets for their peO- | pie.
 Tangier and Ceuta are the keys of the worlds highway; so that invasion of the Moorish emHire would have | raised Armegeddon. And the troubled seas of diplomacy surely never beheld SO rich a "derelict." Three hundred thousand square miles of earth's most fertile land lying at Europe's very door and with 1900 miles of coast line a perpetual Riviera-on two of the worlds most important waterways the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. A prize indeed!
 A granary that would feed an empire. Limitlcss fisheries, especially below Agadr. where the Germans are now making rich hauls Copper mines rich CT than the fabulously rich Rio Tinto property. just across the straits. And ten millions of a hardy fighting race that might well yield a superb army of half million troops, such as could be swiftly disposed in European fields should occasion arise A recruiting ground of this kind may well counter balance the rapid increase of Germa- ny's poulation over that of her rival.
 How few of us realize that only nine miles Separate Morocco from Europe, at the narroWest point of the Straits of Gibraltar? And who shall say in the days of daring engineering that this span may not soon be bridged, and Europe united with Africa by rail?
 For fifty years France has striven passionately for this prize-always by the "penetration pacifque" methods, however, lest her ncighbOrs recall un- easily the old dream of the Mediter- ranean as a French lake-burrowing 2 on the southeastern frontier; looping off oasis after oasis; whose pastoral people suddenly find their cotton goods labeled "Rouen" instead of "Manches- ter
 The whole empire swarms with French "scientist missions" mapping and taking notes. True, these missions often lead to tragedy, as in the case pf Dr. Mauchamp. recently murdered in Marraksh, but, then. colonial expan- sion calls for many martyrs. and Blu Hamara the pretender to the throne. is spending French gold in the bazaars has French officers and French artil- lerymen.
 Slowly. but with a steadfastnesS that commands the admiration of even her enemies, France is swallowing Morocco. A few more episodes like the killing of the jealous Dr. Mauchamp in the southern capital the stoning of de Cir