FRENCH MOROCCO DISSATISFIED

Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 5

FRENCH MOROCCO DISSATISFIED

SHORTAGE OF GOODS REPORTED VICHY PROPAGANDA ACTIVE GESTAPO OPERATING IN TERRITORY (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received September 19, 8.5 p.m.) LONDON, September 18. The Times say that 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 have to be 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, Jews and Moors. Spanish Morocco correspondents say the position in Spain is that Spain does not want war and. is afraid of internal trouble. Spanish officers suspect that the British or the Allies may be landing .in Morocco with the object of securing the southern shores of the Straits of Gibraltar. German propagandists are fostering this suspicion, as a 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 Moroccan regulars (combined Spanish and Moor-

ish troops in the Spanish Army) have been transferred to Spain. Some of them have been sent to the Asturias, which have 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, also to a lesser degree in Spanish Morocco.