FRANCE IN MOROCCO

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 14

FRANCE IN MOROCCO

GREAT COLONIAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Now.that France is .within sight.of completing her greatest colonial achievement—the pacification of MoroccoFrench taxpayers have been asking what tins rich Protectorate has cost, states the Parisian correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." ' The. answer, now available in. the form of,, official statistics, published by M. Pierre Taittinger, VicePresident of the Commission for Algeria, the Colonies, and Protectorates, will come as a surprise to most of those who realise What a great work has been achieved in Morocco ; The pacification, Begun in 1907, will, it is' expected, be completed in 1925, by which time its total cost toFrench will have been not more than one andi a half milliard francs—that is the cost of only five days of the Great War. Since the time when France undertook the development of Morocco, she has neved found it necessary to make' any grants in aid of the Moroccan Budget, the Protectorate having from the first met all it own financial needs while carrying out -important public works, which have cost approximately a milliard francs. In ten years the Budget of Morocco has risen from 17,000,000 to 290,000,000 francs, the whole of which has been raised by her own population. But Morocco has done more than merely pay her way. For the last, three years she has accepted a large share of the cost of'the military operations, and now contributes approximately 26,0C0,Q00 francs a year, to the War Budget, in addition to other defence charges amounting .to some 20,000,000 francs; a total of 46,000,000 francs a year, which the Moroccan taxpayer is providing in addition to the cost' of economic development.

Although the cost of Morocco is stated as one and a half milliard francs, the total credits voted on the French Budget on account of the Protectorate amounted to three milliards up to the beginning of this year. But two-thirds of this sum represents military charges, which would have been borne by France in any case, even had there been no attempt-at the pacification of Morocco^ so that the .actual extra cost of the military operations is only one milliard. An addition of half a' milliard to this will, it is estimated, provide for the completion of Marshal Lyautey's work with the nest two years.