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MOROCCO.

FRENCH ATTACKED AT CASABLANCA. DESPERATE CHARGE AT CLOSE QUARTERS. THE -MOORS REPULSED.

| Received 31st, 0.59 p.m. Morocco, August 30. I Twelve hundred Moors surprised and surrounded two companies of the French Foreign Legion, with two field-pieces, who were accompanied by 50 Spanish troops, at the rear of Casablanca.

The Moors suffered heavily in successive desperate rushes made at close quarters.

Eventually, after receiving reinforcements, the French dispersed the Moors.

MOORS ADOPT FRESII TACTICS. PROFITING BY EARLIER EX- • PERIENCES. Received Ist, 4.20 p.m. Morocco, August 31. In the light near Casablanca the French had three killed and nine wounded.

Many hundreds of Arabs joined those who first commenced the attack. Their mobility was such that the French seldom had a target.

The French altogether were kept on the move for 24 hours.

The tribes are adopting new tactics, and abstained in rnosf instances from charging in large masses, showing a wide formation. THE SULTAN'S "STRATEGY." Mr W. G. FitzGerald, writing in tne July number of the American Review of Reviews on the political situation of Morocco, observes tliat "the Sultan is playing the easiest and most profitable game that the monarchs of weak and chaotic States ran play in the face of the Great Powers. In a word, he is setting off Germany against France; and one result of this is th it the Franco-iSpanish naval demonstration last December, so far. from impressing the Makhzen, or Moorish Cabinet, was <he signal for a serious outburst of Francophobia. Great Britain might have done something useful, for she possessed the confidence of the Moors; but how i-lie has definitely given France a freehand, a circumstance which the Sultan views with dismay as an act of treachery. _ "The situation at present is an utter impasse. Abdul Aziz has endorsed all the decisions of Algeeiras and is pied-r----ed to carry them out. Of course, he could do nothing else without backing from some European Power, and that the conditions of the. Conference forbade. Unaided, it Is equally impossible or him to carry out his pledges, and again the Conference has made aid impossible.

"The Shereefian finances are exhausted, and the last remnants of presti"e destroyed bv the young Sultan's acceptance of the Algeeiras mandate. For the same reason his rule hardly runs beyond the limits of his palace in Fez. All Morocco's orthodox millions regard the mandate of Algeciras as the first decisive step towards European absorption and the end of Moslem rule in 'Sunset Land.'

••For this reason their attitude is <ne of bitterest opposition; and undoubtedly any agitation can arouse them into a dangerous pitch of fanaticism. The young Sultan's adherents at present are a mere hmdful of mercenaries—mainly officials who live, make money, ml hold rank by his despotic appointment. For fear of the Pretender (CVnar Zarahuni, or 'Bu Ilamara.' who lias been intermittently prominent since 1902, and who, it was reported the other day, rules in the north-east), the Court d ire not leave the northern capital; and down in Marrskesh the Sultan's halfbrotlier, Mnli Hofed, or Mulai el Hafid, Viceroy of the South, and the strongest member of his family, was recently declared 'Sultan of all Morocco.'"

It is, indeed, a pitiable situation, and, throughout the land respectable men keep order and curse their "halfXazarene" ruler; :while the disreputable element* are fighting, looting, and nuking "powder talk." They recall the •rood olu times, ages back, when the Inly city of M'.-quinez was built by Christian slaves of Mulai Ismail, who would occasionally build up alive into I the tabia walls one of his white captives when he thought the man was shirking his work. To day Morocco seethes with anarchy and corruption.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19070902.2.15.7

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 2 September 1907, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
613

MOROCCO. Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 2 September 1907, Page 3

MOROCCO. Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 2 September 1907, Page 3

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