RIFFS REINFORCED. SPAIN'S AFRICAN PROBLEM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 84, 6 October 1909, Page 7

RIFFS REINFORCED. SPAIN'S AFRICAN PROBLEM.

ACTION OF SULTAN'S GOVERNMENT. LARGE IMPORTATIONS OF. ARMS AND AMMUNITION. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright. (Received October 6, 8.30 a.m.) MADRID, sth October. Tho tribesmen of Benin and Burri Aguel have sent the Riffs large reinforcements. Advices from Gibraltar state that the Maghzen (Sultan Malai Hand's Council) has impoited enormous quantities of Belgian and German arms and ammunition, and rearmed the cavalry. _ The "little war" that Spain is waging ih Morocco, if not greatly instructive from a military point of view, will surely be of considerable interest politically, and its result \will have a direct bearing on the future standing of the i European in North- West Africa, wrote the Melilla correspondent of The Standard recently. One curious phase of the situation is that Spain has put 30,000 troops m the field virtually to protect a French mining concession, ■while, as an added touch, the French correspondent sits by criticising the management of the campaign, comparing it rather unfavourably with that of Casa Blanca. Of course, there is a Spanish' mining concession also ; but the work of its development has advanced but little. The Spanish occupation of the segment of this coast of Africa, with a radius of less than two miles, dates from 1496 when the Duke oi Medinia-Sidonia established a trading post on the site that afterwai'ds became the walled uown !of Melilia. And the walls were, indeed, needed to protect the traders from the attacks of the Moors, who have never become reconciled to this invasion of their land. The city itself, queerly built on a headland ' that rises 200 ft straight from tho sea, never has been more than a minor depot of trade ; but of late years tho development of the iron and lead mines at Beni-Bu-Ifrur, some twenty miles away, has increased ' its importance somewhat. It is understood that Mulai Hafid has from the first disapproved Spain's peremptory method of enforcing her claims against jthe tribesmen in regard to mines and railways. He sent a protest to the Powers, urging that tho bpaniards were acting in violation of the Algeciras Treaty, and received' a reply that the matter was one entirely between Spain and Morocco. Taking his _ cue from Ihis, the Sultan would appear to be contemplating taking an active pat in the conflict, which would complicate matters considerably. Possibly it was in view 'of this contingency that Spam has been mobilising a far larger force than, is required for the suppression of the tribesmen.