DANGERS IN MOROCCO

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27426, 12 August 1954, Page 11

DANGERS IN MOROCCO

Report To French Assembly (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) PARIS, August 11. The French Minister for Tunisia and Morocco, Mr Christian Fauchet, told the National Assembly last night that the Government planned to introduce a programme to solve Morocco’s problems, but he warned that it could be presented and put into operation only after calm returned to the region. The wave of unrest, centred on the demands for the return of the exiled former Sultan, Sidi Mohammed Ben Youssef, has caused the death of at least 40 persons since Mr Mendes-France announced his plan to grant neighbouring Tunisia home rule late last month, Mr Mendes-France told the Assembly last night, however, that events in Morocco had nothing to do with Government policy in Tunisia, and he said the Government would not hesitate to take any measures, Jiowever harsh, to end the atrocious killings in Morocco.

Mr Mendes-France said that France must find a means, in agreement with the present Sultan, of re-establishing peace and harmony in Morocco. France must also have courage not to use the present trouble as an excuse for postponing overdue reforms. The time for out-of-date colonialism was over, he said. A message from Rabat says that during disorders in Casablanca yesterday a Moroccan tobacconist was shot dead by three men. A Moroccan former soldier was killed in Settat. Moroccan Nationalists had called for a boycott of the mosques and the sacrifices of the big Moslem feast of Aid el Kebir as a sign of mourning on the anniversary of the former Sultan’s banishment. Guarded by thousands of his armed Berber tribesmen, the present Sultan, the aged Sidi Mohammed Moulay Arafa, sacrificed a ram in Rabat, the capital. Guns Trained on Crowd Hundreds of heavily-armed Moroccan guards kept constant vigil on the entrances to the courtyard of his palace. Machine-gunners posted on the nearby rooftops kept their sights trained on the milling crowd. There was little or no feasting in the great urban centres of the country. The Nationalist strike and boycott were observed’ in Casablanca, Fez, and Port Lyautey, and shops remained sHut. Reports reaching Rabat from Tetuan. the capital of Spanish Morocco, said that Aid el Kebir prayers Were pro-

nounced in the name of the former Sultan. Sidi Mohammed V. The Spanish High Commissioner had earlier published a communique declaring the Moroccans would be given complete liberty to celebrate the feast according to their own wishes. Tension still remains high in Morocco. particularly in the cultural and religious centres of Fez. which has been the scltne of week-long demonstrations in favour of the former Sultan. Only scanty reports are emerging from behind the high walls, now ringed bv armed troops, which cut off the 200.000 Moroccan inhabitants from the outside world. In Fez, as in the Arab quarters of Casablanca, Rabat, and Port Lyautey. shops remained closed for the third day running.