FIGHTING IN MOROCCO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9037, 2 March 1908, Page 5

FIGHTING IN MOROCCO.

FRENCH FORCES REINFORCED.

A HOLY WAR PREACHED,

PARIS, February 28.

The French press state that 6,000 men will reinforce General d'Amade, commanding the French forces in Morocco.

Emissaries of Mulai Ha fid are vigorously preaching "Jehad," or holy war, and seriously disturbing the Southern French frontier.

The French, according to Mr Ash-mead-Bartlett, who describes his experiences at Casa Blanca in "Blackwood's Magazine," regard the campaign in Morocco as a prelude to a war with Germany. Falling into the spirit of the camp, Mr Bartlett discusses the evidence afforded by the fichting he witnessed with a constant eye to the future. According to him the French are very much like what they always were. They need to be led, and they need to be encouraged by success. He says:—"lf the French army can find a great chief in'whom it has confidence, and if it gains any success, however small, at the start, it will be certain to give a splendid account of itself. But. preliminary disaster might lead to serious results. The French will probably fight a strictly defensive campaign along the line of their chain of frontier fortresses, and the opening weeks of the war may see a number of murderous but indecisive engagements which would speedily convince both countries that the only solution of the conflict was an equitable peace. The French would ba quite satisfied with an,indecisive campaign; their honour would bi upheld." Mr Ashmead-Bart-lett says:—"The army, as a whole, is a most perfect military machine. In fact, the French troops give you the impression of being over-trained, too machine-like, too methodical, and too certain in all their movements. Every offi"er and man seems to know his exact position on the chess-board, and falls into his place as if by some natural instinct. The movements of the cavalry, artillery, and infantry are always admirably carried out. This perfection of centralisation and control may be necessary and admirable, but it certainly leads to lack of initiative on the part of the units which comprise the whole; and I should say that the French army of to-day is as much hide-bound by formula and the arithmetic of the drillbook as was our own army previous to the. South African war.