MOROCCO TO-DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20728, 11 February 1939, Page 5

MOROCCO TO-DAY

FRUIT OF LYAUTEY’S WORK TEBTINS TIME OF THE CRIBIS A statue was unveiled at Casablanca Just recently to Marshal Lyautey j to whom, more than to any other man, France owes her great territorial dependency in Northern Africa, ■writes

William Teeling in the London Times. The unveiling of the statue of Marshal Lyautey in Casablanca could hardly have happened at a more appropriate time. Planned long before the crisis, the unveiling has taken place at a moment when the work of Lyautey in Morocco ha 9 just been put to the test, and France finds in its fruits much to be proud of. A Changed Attitude On July 27, 1914, two years aftei Lyautel’s arrival in Morocco and eight days before the declaration of war. the General’s A.D.C., Captain Nogues, came into the room where Lyautey was presiding at a meeting with a message from Paris; the interior of Morocco

was to be evacuated and all available French troops sent back to Prance to be ready for the oncoming war. General Lyautey was in despair; the country was not yet subdued, his work had only just begun. Twenty-four years later, on September 21, 1938, the same Captain Nogues, now Resident-General, was in much the same position as Lyautey; once more it was exactly eight days before that fatal day when discussions at Munich were to decide on war or peace. I was with the General at the time. He remembered the teachings of Lyautey: whatever happens, show no concern before the inhabitants. Ho decided to attend the Moussem (a sort of Highland gathering) of 10,000

i tribesmen, in the hills not far from i the Spanish Riff. We drove through the ranks of tribesmen firing off their muskets; with I us was an imposing guard of Spahis. The General made the tribesmen gallop past him, not once but twice. He met the Kaids from that Spanish border where there had been such trouble in the days of Abdel Krim at a diffa (lunch),' where he helped himself to sheep and chicken with his fingers, tearing off the best and hottest bits and j j handing them to the most inlluential j Kaids, in the customary Moroccan manj ner. Later in the day he opened a I ! new mosque in the hills, drank the J ■ sacred milk and accepted the proffered j ' dates; but he had postponed this cere- i I mony for two hours until he saw that i j there was a large enough audience to watch the ceremony. Again he was j remembering Lyautey. He was not , doing this for his amusement, but in order that the Arabs should realise j how France respects Moorish customs I and encourages the religion of the j country. ! Moslem Prayers for France Every hour a messenger approached j him with the latest news from Paris. . We were all anxious, but this time it ; was not a question of how many French ! troops could be withdrawn from Mor- j occo, but of how many Moors could j be sent to fight in France. Three | days later there was another Moussem; | to this the General was now too busy to go, but -other officials attended and quite spontaneously, in the middle of j the festivities, the Holy Man of the . district went on his knees and recited , Koran .prayers for nearly half an hour, ! prayers that asked for Allah's support 1 of the French; and he was followed j ’ by the thousands present. j Two years ago all Morocco rejoiced that General Nogues bad been appoint- | ed Resident-General. It was felt that ) the days of Lyautey were back again, j for he was known to have been one | of the Marshal's favourite disciples and j he had spent many years in Morocco, j But within a year everything seemed to go wrong. There was depression, [ drought, and, above all, a terrible ' epidemic of typhoid which killed off thousands. The General’s popularity suffered; but he persisted along the lines of Lyautey and to-day his popu- 1 larity has returned. ( I was entertained by the head of < the corporations, himself the brother : of the Grand Vizier. After he had < shown me his palace, he asked me if I when I returned to London. 1 would 1 send him a photograph of Sir Cham- 1 berlain, so that he might place it be- : side one of Marshal Lyautey. “Two great followers of Christ,”' he called t them. s