The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY JULY 5, 1926. PATRIOTS IN EXILE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 157, 5 July 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY JULY 5, 1926. PATRIOTS IN EXILE.

.. the cause that lacks assistance, ur the icrong that needs resistanc-t r'or the future in the distance. And the good that we can do

Though the tortune ot war has allowed Abd-el-Krim to survive his gallant struggle for freedom, its close is, in some ways, at least, as tragic as his death in battle could have made it. Aftet n prolonged and heroic resistance against the overwhelming military strength of two European Powers, the Moorish chieftain is to be treated with the honour due to his rank and his inagnilicent though unavailing courage. It will be a relief to all who sympathise with patriotism and the love of liberty to learn that he is not to be handed over to the Spaniards, his bitter personal foes. But the French Government has decided that it cannot afford to leave him nt liberty in his own country, and he is to be interned with his relations and immediate followers in Madagascar. It is just ns well, in considering the close of the gallant efforts made by the Riflian tribes to maintain their independence, to remember that in the first place they had no quarrel with Fiance. The Spanish sphere in Morocco bordered their territory, and neither Spanish public oflieials nor Spanish soldiers have ever shown any great aptitude for dealing with primitive peoples. Rigid, formal and inspired for the most part with a strong sense of their inherent superiority over savages, they have, generally speaking, made the worst of their opportunities in North Africa. Moreover, Abd-el-Krim

had a personal grievance against the Spaniads, for it is generally believed that he was driven to revolt largely through tbe indignities and the personal violence to which lie was subjected by Spanish military odicers. In any ease the war on the Spanish side had assumed largely the character of a vendetta, and it would have been an outrage on the public sentiment of the civilised world to hand over the chief of the Riffians to his personal enemies to endure what they might regard as appropriate punishment.

Happily this last catastrophe has been averted, and no doubt we mayaccept literally and confidently the assurance of the French Government that their gallant captive will be treated with due consideration and even with honour. But it is impossible to refrain from a feeling of regret that political exigencies should appear to demand the infliction of a punishment which to those condemned to bear it may well present itself in the guise of a lingering and humiliating death. The purely physical circumstances and surroundings of their exile may well prove a grievous trial to the men and women who are now to exchange the keen bracing air of the slopes and valleys of the Atlas, and the limitless horizon of the desert, for the tropical temperature and atmosphere of a narrowly circumscribed home on an island in the Indian Ocean. But, after all, the material facts ot life count least of all in the sum total

of human happiness or misery; and the thought of these gallant mountaineers exiled from the land for which they have fought and bled eating out their hearts in captivity far away, may well stir our pity and our regret. Political necessity appears to demand this sacrifice, and quite as strong a case could have been made out against the internment of Arahi Pasha or the Boer leaders in Ceylon as for the exile of Abd-el-Krim to Madagascar. At the same time it is to be hoped that France will realise before long that the claims of magnanimity are worth regarding even in international politics. Once before in her dealings with North Africa France bad a chance of testing the value of generosity as a means of soothing the wounded pride and conciliating the racial prejudices of the warlike tribes that long resisted the strength of her When Abd-el-Kader, the Algerian chief-

tain, had fought for fifteen years against overwhelming numbers, and was finally forced to surrender, the French gave him the honour that was his due. He was, indeed, brought to France to live there in dignified captivity. But after five years he was liberated, received a large pension, and was permitted to live at Constantinople and Damascus; and throughout the Near East and North Africa he used his immense personal influence ceaselessly to promote good feeling between Moslems and Christians and to heal the wounds of war. Abd-el-Krim is doubtless a more primitive and perhaps a less imposing figure on the world's stage than Abd-el-Kader. But the chief of the Riffians, too, is in his own way a patriot and a hero, and it is to be hoped that some means will yet be found to .provide for the safety of France's interests in North Africa without converting the defeat of their bravest antagonist into a punishment and a martyrdom.