Evening star., 1926-06-05

I success, the Spanish will probably
| he able to occupy their whole area
effectively. thing they have not
! been able to do hitherto.
| AS for France. this affair is of
| course relatively minor episode IN
| the creation of their great north
| African empire. the sort OF border
| warfare which the British have been
! CARRYING on in the north OF India
/ for more than a century Actually
! the fertile and valuable portions of
! the French protectorate were never
| disturbed nor was French influence
! seriously shaken. although the whole
/ F~ench position in north Africa
would nave been compromised had
another campaign failed to dispose
| Of the Riffians.
I The future of France. as q great
! power. obviously lies in north and
west Africa and the achievement in
both regions has been enormous.
I There remains a small area in the
/ High Atlas to be occupied and there
will doubtless be other campaigns.
| although none Of the size of the
present. which absorbed not less than
900 French troops and cost
large number of casualties. although
the blood tax was borne mainly by
Senegalese troops and the Foreign
Legion. 90 per cent of whose effec-
tives are German.
a good deal of nonsense and false
sympathy has been called forth hT
this Moroccan war. Abd-el-krim
actually ranks with Sitting Bull or
! any other Indian or native chief one
| may choose 10 name. Those who fol
| lowed him belonged to tribes which
| have resisted every form of civiliza
| tion since Roman days and have
| alternately raided the neighbOring
tribes of the low lands and resorted
| to piracy on the Riff coast.
No colonizing country has ever
| displayed more liberality, sympathy
or consideration for the native race
| than France in north Africa. in
| Algeria and Tunis as we'll as more
recently in Morocco. In place of
| anarchy and misery France has
brought security. order and sound
administration, magnificent highways
have been constructed, and even In
| Morocco there are many lines of rail
| ways where none existed 10 years
ago. Casablanca has been provided
with the fine modern harbor and has
| become a boom city.
| j. # y =
| In every conceivable way the
] French victory is again for the world.
| A success of the Riffians would have
been wholly comparable to a triumph
| of the Afghan border tribes in cut
| ting their way into the plains of
| India and carrying fire and sword
| i'll all directions. The war was a
great misfortune to the French, who
| were able to hold and even extend
| their influence in Morocco during the
| World War with little serious trouble.
| but, as | have said. it was a conse-
! quence of the Spanish failure. which
gave the Riffs the mistaken notion
that they could sweep Europeans
out of north Africa. But if the war
| began across the Spanish boundary
| there is no doubt. that tie French
were very stupid in handling the
| affair at the outset and have had to
pay excessively heavily at a time
when they could i'll afford it.
1t is a mistake, however. to set the
war down to French militarism or
| imperialism. 1t was no more than
| one of the inevitable incidents in the
history of cOlonizing power: we had
it in the Philippines. the British had
it all over the lot and even the Ger
mans had it in southwest Africa when
they were still a colonial power.
Copyright. 1860