Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-14
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
City without a Country

WY WANAAOub NCNN
in taking up the question of the
status of Tangier. Africa's most
northwesterly city-and s~trategically
a sort of Roland for Gibraltar's
Oliver-Great Britain, France and
Spain are dealing with a question
of such delicacy that it has been
lodged by mutual consent for eleven
years. says a bulletin from the
Washington, d. c., headquarters of
the National Geographic Society in
regard to the city without a coun-
try which is the subject of
diplomatic conversations in Lond-
on.
1.-THE Moroccan crisis of 1911 be-
tween France and German almost
set the World Wal off three years
before Its time" continues the bull
letin; and when peace was pre-
served by the narroWest margin,
the powers were glad enough to
thrust the Tangier question hastily
aside by stating that the city was
to be given a special regime to be
agreed upon later In the mef2l-
time a temporary international COM
mission has administered affairs in
the city and a territory of lao square
miles around 1t, and has failed TO
please Great Britain who wants per-
manent characterization. France,
who waZrs it annexed to the French
proteetorate; or Spain, who wants
control herself.
Only a Few Miles From Europe
Situated only a few miles from
Europe, Tangier has been affected
to a greater or less degree by West
ern civilization for centuries. Since
the Moors set up their power in
northwestern Africa, the Portuguese,
Spaniards and English have at times
held the place; but the English, the
last of the three to have possession,
abandoned it to the Moors in 1854.
For a long time afterward it was one
| of the chief cities of the sultan of
Morocco. But since the city has
been in the hands of 'inhdels it
has been visited only on the rarest
occasions by the S-ltans.
From the sea, Tangier is the
Arab city of North Africa par ex-
cellence, for the ugly dashes of yell
low, green, and red, with which
scrattered modern constructions
have marred the otherwise glisten-
ing whiteness of the native city, are
not distinguishable until the steamer
lies close in.
"The traveller from Europe will
be struck at once by the total lack
of the well-known rumble of city
streets, for though the Uneven
thoroughfares are in most part paw
ed with cobblestones, wheeled
vehicles are practically unknown
not only in Tangier, but throughout
Morocco. The streets are neyerthe-
less crowded with other means of
transport. So narrow are some of
them that at the oft-repeated
'Balak!' Look out! one must again
and, again spring into some door
way in order to let donkeys, mules,
burdens, pass by.
Camels and Men do the "Trucking"
"Camels have to be unloaded on
the 'Socco,' or market-place outside
the walls. Things too heavy to be
carried by a single animal must be
transported by men, and it is no
unusual sight to see great stones
five and six feet long slung on poles
and borne by a dozen or more half
naked Moors.
I'm these narrow streets the little
box-like shops, waist high, give the
proper orinetl setting to the whole.
In them one sees the owner reclin-
ing and sedately reading, seemingly
6blivious to the stirring scene
around him, until he is disturbed
by a purchaser for his goods, all of
which are within arms reach.
"Tangier's strategic Importance
lies in the fact that it is at the
southern entrance to the Strait Of
Gibraltar and as a fortified naval
base might prove almost as ef~fectual
in blocking that exceedingly i'm
portant passage as the famous rock
itself. The city Is only 35 miles
southwest of the Rock of Gibraltar
and is barely rs miles from the
nearest point on the Spanish main
land"