Moroccan War

A terrific heat wave greatly interfered last week with the prosecution of the war in Morocco (TIME, May 11, et seq.). Minor engagements were reported in the Spanish sector in the south, but nothing decisive was effected by any engagement. In general, the Riffians continued to dominate Fez* and Taza behind the Wergha River and a new offensive against the former was developing.

At Madrid, Franco-Spanish conversations, inaugurated several weeks ago by French Deputy Louis Malvy (TIME, May 25), came to an end with the signing of two accords: one to begin a land blockade,of the Riff territory, the other a political agreement designed to secure the coordination of aims and policy.

The most important part of the political accord, aside from an agreement not to conclude a separate peace, was the offer of peace terms to Abd-el-Krim, "Sultan" of the Riff State, which are to be presented to him at his capital, Ajdir, by Horacio Echevarrieta, millionaire shipowner who has several times negotiated with the Riff Chief on behalf of his Government. According

to Mr. Malvy, the plenipotentiary of the French Government who returned to Paris from Madrid, Abd-el-Krim is offered autonomy of the Riff area under the nominal sovereignty of Sultan Mulai Yusef, with an agreement to demark the frontiers in such wise as will guarantee the "province" full economic and political security.

"I am naturally afraid," admitted Mr. Malvy, "that Abd-el-Krim has become very difficult to satisfy. People with whom he has surrounded himself since his recent military successes have certainly stimulated him to desire things entirely beyond reason. However, when he becomes apprised of the fact that, among other things he is being offered the fullest possible liberty for commercial development and every reasonable opportunity to utilize to the best advantage the resources of his country, I believe he will think twice before inviting upon himself a real war in which France and Spain will call no halt until a decisive victory shall have been achieved."

General Stanislas Naulin, the recently appointed director of military operations in Morocco (TIME, July 13), was to take up his new duties on July 18. He will be under Marshal Louis Lyautay who, apart from being French Resident General, is Minister of War to the Sultan.

General Naulin is 55 years old and was educated at Saint-Cyr, school founded by Mme. de Maintenant, wife of Louis XIV, and now the West Point of France. As lieutenant and captain, he saw service in Morocco under the famous General d'Amade. At the beginning of the War, he, was a major and was rapidly promoted to be General for his brilliant work. At the last German offensive on Rheims, he had under his command the U. S. "Rainbow Division" (42nd) as well as the 2nd and 36th U. S. Divisions, whom he commended in army orders for their valor, spirit, ardor.

Circumstances forced Premier Painleve to go before the Chamber of Deputies to ask for a new war credit. "How much do you need?" jeered the Communists. The Government asked for and obtained 183,000,000 francs ($9,150,000) by a vote of 411 to 29, the Socialists abstaining and the Communists alone forming the opposition.

A Lafayette Escadrille was formed in Paris for service in Morocco. Granville A. Pollock of New Orleans and Charles W. Kerwood of Philadelphia volunteered to pilot bombing airplanes, and Charles Sweeney and Paul Rockwell, U. S. veterans of the Foreign Legion, volunteered as observers. Much comment was heard regarding the efficient and up-to-date methods by which Abd-el-Krim is conducting his campaign. His staff work seems of a high order, each attack evidently being-planned with great care and almost invariably at the weakest point of the French positions, made weak, of course, by the staff's strategy.

The greatest work is done by what is called "infiltration," which is used with considerable success to stir up the Moorish tribes in the rear of the French lines or actually in them: A single Riffian regular crawls in the night past the French outposts, visits villages in the rear to urge war upon the French and to promise rewards from his Chief, Abd-el-Krim. The visits are repeated nightly; and if kind words fail, threats are used, and occasionally an assassination is committed to terrorize the petty chieftains into submission. The Valley of the Wergha, along which the fighting is taking place, is noted for its rich iron deposits; and in the views of some the war is in reality for their possession, Abd-el-Krim supposedly being under the thumb of Germany, who has promised to import all the ores which the Riff chief can deliver.

Rire, Paris comic paper, takes a slightly different view. In a double cartoon called Tracts et Tractions (Ideals and Deals), it shows a Communist in Paris holding the Communist paper L'Humanite and shouting Le Rif aux Rifains (the Riff for the Riffians). In the other picture is an Englishman in conference with a Riff and the inscription beneath runs: "... et, bien entendu, les mines de Ouergha a une societe anglaise!" ( . . . and, of course, the Wergha mines for an English company).

A story which made considerable bruit in Paris: The ferocity of the Riff attacks was accounted for by the part played by tribeswomen who, hands smeared with henna, race after their warriors shrieking hysterically and smearing any who hold back or in any ether way display cowardice. After each attack, the men are examined and those with henna stains upon them are summarily shot.

M. Charles Maurras, writing in the Royalist newspaper, L' Action Francaise, urged the use of poison gas against the Riffians. By dropping poison gas bombs, he said, France would have the Riffians begging for mercy within a few weeks--and "think of the expense in life and material that would be saved."

One thing that the war has done is to give an impetus to the French aerial medical services. Numberless lives have been saved by the transference of wounded soldiers (most of the French troops in Morocco are natives) by airplane from the front line to the base hospitals in the rear.

* Fez is sometimes called the capital of Morocco, whereas it is more correctly a capital. Morocco has four capitals, depending on where the Sultan maintains palaces. They are Fez, Marrakesh, Meknes, and Rabat, the last of which is the most important; for it is there that the Sultan spends most of his time and where the Resident General resides.