FRENCH MOROCCO

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1934, Page 16

FRENCH MOROCCO

TWO COLUMN ADVANCE

WITH FOREIGN LEGION

As a result -of French effort.s, and especially.;of the.policy of .penetration initiated/by that great soldier and administrator, .-■ Marshal Lyautey, the authority cf ,-the Sultan now extends over all Morocco, says the special correspondent of the London "Morning Post;".at Marrakesh.

The methods adopted have been notable. First of all, French officers of the Native-Affairs'.Department, men experienced in dealing with the tribesmen, have'penetrated far into the hostile country, and obtained information of great- value,, besides,, by tact and persuasion, winning over many of the Caids to the French cause.

Last year, in the. Middle Atlas operations, which ended after hard fighting in the capture of the Berber leader, Oskounti, 'and the complete subjection nf the recalcitrant tribes, no fewer than 25,000 men were employed.' Early this year a large army .was again collected under the supreme command, of General Hure, to advance into those portions of South-western Morocco not yet occupied. This force, composed of two groups under the command of General Giraud and General Carroux, penetrated into the hostile country at great speed. The mechanised group of General Giraud, debouching through the AntiAtlas passes at Akka and Tatta, made an encircling movement, outflanking the enemy, along the Oued Lraa towards the south-west. That of General Catroux operated southwards along the borders of Ifni, having ns its base tho desert city of Tiznit, where every

day the drums proclaim the grandeur of the Sultan.

The advance of the two groups was pressed with, such vigour that the opposition of the dissident forces under the rebel leader known as the Blue Sultan completely broke down, in spite of the fact that they possessed machine-guns, manned, so it is said,, by deserters from the Foreign Legion. The southern border of Ifni, the small Spanish territory, on the coast, . was reached and the troops, continuing their victorious career, came to the line of the River Draa, the boundary between. Morocco and the Eio del Oro, another' Spanish possession.

Meanwhile a Spanish Expeditionary Force of some 1200 men was dispatched from Ceuta and landed without opposition at Ifnj, territory not previously occupied, thus precluding any possibility of the French forces being taken in the rear by hostile tribesmen.

Thus at the conclusion of the operations French 'troops were in secure possession of the line of the Draa and the whole of Morocco for the first time in the history of the country came under the effective control of the Sult.in. : The greater part of the troops employed belonged to the Foreign Legion, a corps made up very largely of Germans.

The Legion is really in Itself an army, for it is some 25,000 strong,- composed, Jike the Indian army Royal Corps of Guides, of cavalry, artillery, and ■ infantry.

As soon as the troops of General Catroux reached the line of the Draa it became possible for tho mechanised column of General Giraud to press, on into Tindouf, a place in Algeria near the north-eastern border of the Rio del Oro, which had not previously been occupied owing to the presence of hostile troops in the rear.

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