IMPRESSIONS FROM MOROCCO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 55, 26 August 1911, Page 10

IMPRESSIONS FROM MOROCCO.

(By 0. V. Gottbery in Die Woehe). Every European who lives in or who visits Morocco, not only believes, but feels that Dame History lias lifted her pencil to put the last period to the story of Morocco as a sovereign state. This can be felt, for it is in the air, it can be, prophesied, for the inexorable logic of historical events was always stronger than the, wish of foreign offices formulated on parchment.

If Muiai Hafid -to-morrow exercised the spirits—or, more correctly, soldiers — which he conjured into the country at the bidding of his -French advisers, then the Kabyies, who to-day, under the threat of cannon, swear him obedience, would hang his head over the walls of Fez. This ho knew when lie begged Monier, who was starting on his march away from the capital, to send him under escort to the neighborhood of the, French warships on the coast. Instead of complying, the commander left a bodyguard of his troops behind near the palace. Certainly France could, through the Moroccan?, elect a new Sultan. Still, he would only be Sultan by grace of France, and his head would fall to the executioner as soon as the French forces left. Then the evacuation of Chaonia would signify anarchy and great damage to international business—if not a massacre of Europeans. Strong enough to flourish even under a foreign flag, are the seats of our trado in Chaonia. The great houses are German and the retail stalls arc French. As in all French colonies, so also in Morocco, no Frenchman has become rich. In Algiers the Spaniard eats the fat of the trade. In Cochin China the Frenchman plants the rice that the Chinese may harvest it. The wearer of the pigtail sends or carries both the rice and the piastres into his home and has acquired all the factories which the French built in the country. The little "Army of Chaonia" is recruited —a third of Frenchmen and two-thirds of African subjects of France. Perhaps the spirit and the military activity of the French army is not reflected in the people drawn from France for the colonial service. But the corps of officers is complete from the same elements as the European army. They have enjoyed the same education and many are brought from the home regiments. The troops marched brightly and bravely—often smilingly into danger. Death waited for the man who moved a stone's throw from the column of march or from the camp, and even the common soldier looked him in the eye calmly and made little fuss over the fallen. ' They have a wholesome contempt for human life. Tough and usually in good scpirits is the soldier. But officers and men betray the want of professional training so much that indeed a layman can tell that these troops, victorious over a primitive enemy, would fail in battle against a trained European army. Neither infanterist nor artillerist is familiar with the use of his own weapon. Almost every French reporter tells that the batteries, even those from France, shot badly, very badly. In the infantry the way of bungling with the rifles showed want of training and discipline. The weapons after the fight were neglected and never cleaned. Every fifth or tenth served frequently as a tent prop in the companies, which lay in the first line of the square round the camp. They placed no outposts towards the enemy. Therefore, by day or night, a shot of the post before the guns always alarmed the whole column. That the Africans fired lazily from the hip and without aiming is a fact known to the whole French army. Also the French can have made only stray hits in a frantic waste of cartridges/ Their fire was never under control nor was this striven for by the officers. After the first vigorous rattle the great French tiredness fell leaden and heavy on officers and men. No advancing line attempted to carry its fire upon a retreating enemy; the distant work was left to the artillery. Here was shown the want of fitness to make a resolution and of the joy of such in the officer. As soon as the tension of the first bravely met danger was over he lay indifferent to the behaviour of his companion of the next company. Only in the moments of his first excitement did he think of supporting his neighbor with fire. He had no interest in the battle and apparently very little in his calling. In the column Gouraud there travelled to Fez as non-coniKit-ants ordered to the staff which was forming—si major and a captain. During the fight both gentlemen, as .brave, no doubt, as their comrades, lay or stood by their horses near the protected provision column behind. How quickly would the officers of another army have been on the heights, with burning eyes to follow the business in which" they might not join, in order, at least, to smell powder. Mutual dislike and envv are rife among the officers. The stranger soon understands why the grizzled staff-officer in the column looks askance at the young captain of the staff. With-, out wishing it I had to he witness of the .reception of a high officer by a very high officer. The high officer reports his column arrived. The very high officer asks him why he has acted against his orders. The high officer says he has received no orders. The young captain of the staff mixes passionately in the conversation. "But I sent you the orders in writing." No naming of the charge closes this impolite, disrespectful short sentence. The high officer whose official report is not believed, must aver with the words "je vous donne in a parole mon No matter, the conversation goes on under the supposition that the high officer received the order, and rough demands for explanation, are made sometimes by the very high officer, and sometimes by the captain of the staff.

And the imparting of orders! They can dispose of nothing in short, clear words; they cannot be precise and orderly, they can prepare nothing beforehand. General Monier himself is said to have complained to a French reporter: "How can they urge me to an advance if they send me to-day the cannon of a battery, to-morrow provisions, tho day after to-morrow the battery horses, and then eight days later the men, while meantime the munitions and forage are on the steamers." At all events it has been so, and the fact that they know nothing of organising and preparing will remain their Achilles' heel. Six weeks after the ad vance of the troops into a country bare of wood they had not yet received fire materials for cooking. It cannot be said that the chiefs of the companies suffered. A captain who anticipates that his people in the morning will have no wood to cook their coffee is said to ride behind the column with sorrow and search the far horizon for trees. The gentlemen of the French army announce aloud much love for their people. They speak with touching pride of the petit, soldat. But perhaps they are wanting in the true care which thinks with a warm heart of the welfare of the "rascals," although using harsh words sometimes. The soldier from France returns verv little of this affection. He is inclined to be rcfractorv; indeed, steps up to the petty officer with arrogant, and impudent, nonchalance, and speaks to him in a way that would make the bristles of a German rise. A fraction of this may be set down to lucre national temperament, but it is queer without doubt.

lii tlii! camp uf I.olin Hi is sitting cooking (i company of Zouaves recruited out of Francis'but garrisoned in Algievn, lithe, stronir. often line looking men, from whom the natives are to learn how Frenchmen Ibolc. One lias cigarettes and asks for a* match. The man with Hie match will only exchange it for a cigarette. A good-natured dispute arises, which, after an exchange,'ends with the question: "Do you see, Henoit, how badly this expedition to Morocco is organised. I have the, inatphes and you the cigarettes." This leads to the discussion as to who organised the expedition, It must have been Fallieries himself "comme il monte a cheval." Benolt interrupts the joke at the cost of the President. "As he has sent a monk I Monier) he cannot wish any good to the expedition." Harmless enough so far for Frenchmen, hut (lie petty officers remain sitting and laughing with them when the conversation about the "badly organised expedition" takes hold of the company officers above at their mess table with biting and invidious witticism.

In considering Morocco and the Moroccans, the passing visitor must ask with astonishment again and again how this land and people could exist* so long under the nose of Europe, close to Gibraltar. The people live in the deepest barbarism and ignorance, but materially well. The small man is presumptuous, and the wealthy man a sybarite. Our countrymen in vain attempted to import German sugar into Chaonia. The inhabitants are fastidious, and prefer the French article, although it is dearer. Ihc gluttony to which a rich Arab invited me in Fez began with anointing the hair and the scenting of the clothes. Oil of rosea was used in order that the nose might not be in want at the table. The scarcity in the chief town was great, but for live feasters a fowl was served up six times, and other kinds of flesh between times. They ate with their lingers. The shops in the town have no windows—dark caves behind opened walls—yet within are all kinds of European foods that can be preserved. The European calls the Arab a Berber! Moor or Moroccan Jew, and the inhabitants are conservative. So they are. as far as resisting with. iron w'ill everv civilised advance in culture. A European may introduce any kind of material enjoyment, but no means of culture of ideas. In Tangier life has stood still since the times of which psalmists sang for the skins of goats and asses serve to-day as water-bottles. They ride on colts of the sumpter she-ass. The servant is a slave. Among this people, unrestrained, and without notion of time, but of over-blown pride, one learns, in addition, how to understand the Spaniard, the son of the Moors. Morocco also is the land of the Manana, and the Moroccan is a wild and uncivilised—a barbarous Spaniard. He loves horses and weapons, and shears closely in the dealings which get him the money to buy the steds and weapons. Yes, it is likely that at Cape Spartel dwell, the sharpest business. men in the world—men who know how to turn every situation to profit. Too beggarly poor Moroccan Jews went to London. Twenty years after these two brothers, Sassoon, sat at the table of the heir-apparent, whose finances they regulated to gain power, riches and influence. The lust for gain corrupts the State and the man in it. To-dav French money conquers the pride of the great of the land, and the small man is a beggar for gratuities. Tn Fez the representatives of the Powers, after a visit to the Sultan, scatter small coins among the Palace officials. Dr. Vassal, our Consul, once left the whole sum for gifts in the hands of an officer, with a request for its proper division. Then he trotted down the duty street from the summer residence, hidden by trees, to the square of high walls behind which Fez lies under white mosques and high cedars. But faster than his horse rail, a servant, with bogging out-stretched hand, "Consul, Consul, thou hast forgotten my gift/' Dr. Vassal explained, and waved him off. The beggar kept pace with the bay horse and begged still on the rough pavement of the street, which twists zig-zag through the five gates. Here before a hundred spectators the whining became too much for the Consul. (To called to his kawassen (soldiers here), "Conduct the man' to the palace and say that I expect a punishment for him." An hour later an Arab stepped into the Consul's chamber of office in clean white burnus (the dress which officers and private persons of the democratic country wear), "Consul, I come from the Minister of Justice, who begs to state that he has punished the beggar." Dr. Vassel thanked him, but the messenger stretched his hand over the writing table: "And my gift, Consul?" The Consul had scarcely paid him and laughed, as a man who loves the Arabs as great children, when in came his soldier with a palace official: "The War Minister sends me to tell you that the beggar received "nineteen-strokes of a stick. Mav I'liavS my grrftuity. <joiv sul?" Xow Dr. Yassef laughts 'at bis own cost. The first messenger, who gave out that he came from the Minister of Justice, was one of the spectators who were under the five gates! There you have the Moroccan in a nutshell— bcgars who can make profit out of every, situation.

In the battles the natives': l showed themselves sometimes bold and brave .even to a recklessness which simply despises death; sometimes miserably cowardly. They liked to fire, but never aimed and seldom hit. Thev usually fought in groups of three or 'four, and always without uniform guidance. Over the open field they rode without minding the bullets against troops or even a fortified camp. Behind the Onid Beht they lay protected-In a Safe "position, wneh could have Wan held for day's; but they rode. outAhen ~the first' shots struck the water. To wounded enemies they behaved like barbarians. The. people are sociable. If my natives in the evening after dinner' were drinking tea mixed with peppermint leaves before the tent, the wise and old c:une from the nearest village, praised Allah, and asked for the news of the world. On into the morning one Jioftrd the rustling of the water and''the hum of soft, voices. My tired people willing- ,\ 1 sacrificed their night's rest to'report to these never-fatigued loafers, and their tea .to be considered amiable hosts. And a most lovely, enchanting picture is presented every evening by the socalibilit.v of the women on the roofs of Fez or the Arab town of Tangier*. If,the Sun is so oblique that the house above - lies' iii shadows, they hurry from their "dens like eats to their roofs and climb nimbly from house to house. Then the women wear, not the white dress with the hood which hides the face, but "»!>' a light veil oil the hair and on the small body colored silk which covers the linilis as closely as on the European women. Like children they babble, and hm' mmnen liicy raise (heir arms oo* i]uet tislilv to their hair in order to show he curious the round of their splendid lambs and the numerous ornaments, such lis beautiful bracelets of coral As simple, as happy, as are the pussief on (lie roof.