Morocco

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 19, 2 August 1892, Page 4

Morocco

Morocco is an anachronism as a nation— something quite out of date. Within two days' sail of England— within cannon range of Gibraltar — it is yet less opened up or cultivated than many an African State explored for the first time within the last twenty years. One little fact mentioned by the Rev Haweis in the April number of the Fortnightly Review, speaks a whole volume. There is not a road over which such a vehicle could be driven ! Yet it is an immense country, with a population variously estimated at from three to eight millions, and much of it is a natural paradise. "Look boyon-l Tangiers," writes Mr Haweis. '• I see betweenranges oi metalliferous mountains, upon whose slopes herds of wild horses enough to set up the Continent with cavalry, or tame cattle for its commissariat, could be raised, vast alluvial plains, well watered, utterly untouched by industry, yet capable of bearing grain and f'rui-; enough to supply half Europe — wheat, oranges, lemons, Jndian corn, sugar, grapes, olives, dates, bananas, and every kind of vegetable. I see a great navigable river, the Lebon, down which all this produce might be floated, between Fez and the sea coasts, for rapid export. iS'ot a steam plough, or a harrow, or a threshing machine will the Sultan permit ; not a square foot will he sell ; not a steamer or trading vessel may ply upon rivers which should be at once the boundaries of teeming and prosperous provinces and the arteries of cosmopolitan commerce. The vulture on the look-out for a dying slave or a dead camel swings his dismal flight over a eilent land, with here and there a few Arab huts, a wandering Jew, a bloated Bashaw, a stinking city, and a perfumed harem. How long is this to last t The relations beteen Morocco and Europe have always been strained — they are likely to snap suddenly." — Exchange.