UNREST IN MOROCCO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 251, 20 September 1940, Page 7

UNREST IN MOROCCO.

EFFECT OF PROPAGANDA,

SPANIARDS DISTURBED

LONDON, Sept. 18. The Times says various reports indicate that the situation in French Morocco is deteriorating. There is a shortage of everything. Only minor details of administration can be settled locally. Questions of major policy are referred to Vichy, which means the Wiesbaden armistice tribunal. Vichy propaganda, under Italian and German inspiration, aims to prove that Britain alone is going to starve the French, the Jews, and the Moors. The position in Spanish Morocco corresponds to that in Spain. Spain does not want war, and is afraid of internal trouble.

Spanish officers suspect a British or Allied landing in Morocco with the object of securing the southern shores of the Strdits of Gibraltar. German propagandists are fostering this susr picion, as the result of which larger forces of metropolitan troops have been transferred to Morocco. Gunposts cover practically the entire coast. A curious situation has arisen in Spain. It is understood that the Moroccan regulars (the combined Spanish and Moorish troops in the Spanish army) have been transferred to Spain. Some of them have been sent to the Asturias, which has never been completely pacified. Moorish troops are also believed to be stationed in the Badajoz region. Recruiting has been reopened in Morocco for native troops, partly to avoid complaints of unemployment and food shortage among the Riffs. The Gestapo is already operating in French Morocco and also to a lesser degree in Spanish Morocco.