The Carlisle independent., 1909-09-16
AZlRPYIWo f0aH HArl4NaER-z0AE

the Mediterranean coast of Morocco were not of her own making, there would be a feeling of considerable sympathy with a country almost the last of whose foreign possessions is so seriously threatened. Unfortu- nately, Spain has brought the trou- ble upon her own head, or, to be more accurate, the Ultramontane cabinet that misgoyerns the country has in ficted them upon her. Most people outside the Spanish cabinet do not re- quire to be told that the Riffians who inhabit the Moroccan highlands over looking the Mediterranean are a fierce, intractable, unconquered peo- pie. Even Muzas Arabs could not re duce them to submission, and the troops of Cardinal Cisneros were equally unsuccessful. It may be said that the writ of the sultan himself does not run far into the Riff coun. try, where the people follow the life that was theirs before civilization vis- ited western Europe, having their own code of honor, their blood-feuds and their internecine strife Great pi- rates in times past, they have long given up piracy as a profession, and practice is now merely as pastime But they have never ceased to exer else themselves in the profession of arms, and for many years the litt!e wealth they have acquired by their labors on the land and in the field, and by the sale of the herds and Jocks they rear, has been devoted to l the purchase of guns.
 Guns and guns, and still more guns, some coming from England, France. or Germany, many coming from Bel gium, large quantities from Spain, and not a few from the sultan's own | troops; for it is no secret that when a Moor is tired of serving in the army l in return for pay that is always in arrears, he deserts, carrying his be- | loved gun with him, and sells it to | the nearest tribe that does not ac- | knowledge the sultan's authority Even on the coast beyond Tangier and l round Ceuta, Tetuan and Melilla, gun running has been carried on openly more than once within view of the writer. The guards on the beach have l been squared or tricked, and conveys 1 have been waiting within mile of the
 landing-place to carry the precious
 weapons into the mountains. So it | happens that the Riffians are we'll armed, and they are fighting because their territory has been violated. h. | deed, if they had white skins and a code of western morality, they would be in serious danger of being called patriots instead of rebels.
 The position in which Spain finds | herself is one of extreme difficulty | Senor Maura, the premier, is an obsti- nate reactionary. The country Is in l censed against the war party. Span | ish finances are in their chronic state of weakness. The cost of subduing the Riffs in money alone, to say noth- 1 ing of blood, will be enormous. If the government does not fall, if eastern Spain can be pacified. if 50,000 troops can be sent to Melilla and the other presidios of Spain in Morocco, if the Riffs can be driven of and their noun tain strongholds can be destroyed. it
 is hard too see what Spain can hope to gain beyond a measure of glory and
 a bill, that bear the same relation to one another as the bread to the sack in Falstaff's famous tavern account. There is not enough money in all the country of the Riffs to pay the bill
 that Spain has incurred already. aud | though some attempt may be made
 to saddle the sultan with responsibil. ity, it is we'll known that Mulai el
 Hafid is no better able than Gen. Marina to control the tribesmen. Nor | is the country of the Riffs calculated to tempt sane men to conquer it. It is wild, rugged, inhospitable. and can scarcely yield a living even to those | who have been brought up in it. IL could only be kept at the point of the | bayonet, for even if Spain had sur
 plus population, there would be no temptation for emigrants to settle iG such a wild and unproductive land
 Spain has no colonists, she needs
 more population, and consequently
 there is absolutely no room for an
 imperial policy in Africa.
 If Senor Maura were less obstinate
 and the rulers of Spain less proud
 one and all would see the advisabit
 ity of retiring at once from an untea
 able position before the wounds iu
 fiicted upon the nation by the Cuban troubles and the American war brok, out afresh Nobody doubts the braveTy
 of the Spanish troops; they have, and
 deserve a splendid reputation. Bui
 mere bravery will do very little in
 a campaign carried on under condi
 tons with which the Spaniards arc