HAFIDIST REGIME.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 308, 22 September 1908, Page 7

HAFIDIST REGIME.

FRENCH POLICY. CRADUAL WITHDRAWAL OF THE ARMY* POLICE TO REMAIN. (BY TELEGEAPH—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYEtGHT.) London, September 20. France has withdrawn 3000 men from Casablanca. Three thousand more will leave in October, and ..ultimately tho remaining 8000 will be supplanted by police. THE POLICING POWERS. The policing of Morocco was, under the Algeciras Act (1906), • ontrusted to France and Spain. The presence of Fronch troops as a temporary army of occupation is duo merely to tho disturbances, with loss of life, which occurred last year. The new Sultan, Mulai Hafid, has undertaken to maintain order; and tho French troops are to be withdrawn in instalments. The Algeciras Act includes a declaration relating to the organisation of a police force' of 2000 to 2500, which is to be recruited by the Maghzen from among Moorish Mussulmans, commanded by Kaids, and distributed among the eight ports; Spanish and French instructors, officers, and non-commissioned officers are to assist the Sultan in the organisation for five years, subject to the control of an In-spector-General seloeted from the Swiss Army by the. Swiss Federal Government. The instructors and officers are to be Spanish at Tetuan and Larache, mixed at Tangier and Casablanca, and French at Ilabat and the other ports. Colonel Muller, who was appointed to' command the Franco-Spanish police force, arrived at Tangier in March of last year, and the European control of the Customhouses began in the following July. Opposition to the new Customs administration at Casablanea, and to new harbour works there, led to an antiEuropean rising, and several Europeans were murdered. The occupation of Casablanca by troops under General Drude followed, and tho operations in Morocco of the Fronch force havo entailed a considerable cost in blood and treasure.

The conditions embodied in the FrancoSpanish Note, sotting forth the terms on which Mulai Hafid shall bo recognised as Sultan, contain a stipulation that tho Powers, after the recognition of Mulai Hafid, shall retain the right to advance claims affecting their separate interests, including repayment of military expenditure incurred by the disturbances in Morocco, also indemnities for tho murders of subjects of the Powers iu Morocco.