SPANISH MOROCCO

Evening Star, Issue 22628, 21 April 1937, Page 7

SPANISH MOROCCO

rebels' firm min WHAT GERMANS WANT “'While each important Foreign Office is wondering how it can lessen the interference of its neighbours in the affairs of Spain,- Germany is developing her influence over Spanish Morocco, an area of greater value to her than the whole Iberian Peninsula,” writes Mr Vernon Bartlett, the wellknown commentator on foreign affairs, in the London ‘ News Chronicle.’ As General Franco’s chances of a smashing victory in Spain grow fainter, he continues, the call of Morocco will grow more and more insistent in the ears of the Germans, who had great ambitions, constantly thwarted by the British and the French, in North Africa before 1914. Indeed, the arrival of the German gunboat Panther in the summer of 1911 off Agadir “ to protect German interests ” there brought Europe to the verge of war. Articles 141-146 of the Versailles Treaty, whereby Germany renounced her ambitions in Morocco, are among the very few still remaining in force which impose upon her humiliating inequalities, and it will not, he considers, be at all astonishing if Herr Hitler launches an attack against them before the civil war in Spain comes to an end. There are, ho points out, four reasons apart from Germany’s vast natural resentment against unequal treaties which convince one that Spanish Morocco is going to play an important part in the politics of the near future. STRATEGIC VALUES. One is its enormous strategic value. The European State which controls it na S 0 the Straits of Gibraltar. The principal reason why this area was handed over to Spain was that Great Britain was opposed lo French possession of a coastline from which British communications with India through the Mediterranean could bo menaced. That opposition would naturally apply still more strongly in-the case of any

other Great Power. A second reason is that if the Protectorate were to pass to Germany, or German influence in it were to become very strong, French hopes of organising a useful Moroccan array in her own territory next door would he destroyed. The frontier between the French and Spanish zones is an artificial one, which makes it very easy to encourage subversive activities in one zone from the other. Germany worked hard and successfully in this sense during the World War. A third ■ reason is that Spanish Morocco is now in the hands of the Spanish rebels, and will remain so even in the event of a crushing defeat of General Franco in Spain. In no circumstances, it is declared, would, the Spanish Government send troops overseas to win back Spanish-African possessions. Spaniards on the Left have never felt- any pride in this empire which has cost the lives of so many of their compatriots, and which was regarded as King Alfonso’s best excuse for organising a large army with a dangerous interest in politics. If Great Britain and Franco want to dislodge Germany from Spanish Morocco, and even the Canary Islands, they will, it is considered, have to do so themselves. MINERALS PAY FOR ARMS. A fourth reason is that the mountains of the Spanish-Riff arc rich in minerals which arc essential to German heavy industry, and there is no doubt that already German influence in Morocco is very great. General Franco is paying for the help he receives from Berlin with Moroccan manganese and iron ore. A recent agreement whereby the Campania Es-

pagna de Minas del Rif pledged itself to deliver 80,000 tons of ore to Germany within the next eight months has already been reported. But this, it is stated, is only a small part of the trade developing between the German Government and that of the Spanish rebels. Since last October a company known as Hisma, which has its headquarters in Seville, but is controlled by the German heavy industries, has been active in supplying ores to Germany. General Franco has granted it the' monopoly for the export of all minerals from the. Riff, although most of the mining companies are owned by British, French, or Spanish shareholders. According to reports in Paris, Germany pays for the ores she receives by making a corresponding reduction in the amount she is owed by General Franco for munitions, Thus these British and other foreign companies supply Germany with the raw materials for her-armaments, but receive no money in return for this service. This German penetration in Spanish Morocco will continue, it is considered, if General Franco wins, with the consent of the Spanish Government, but also without its active opposition. It will continue if Herr Hitler chooses to make the abolition of Articles 141 to 146 of the Versailles Treaty, the condition on which he will refrain from further intervention in Spain. In any of these cases, it is pointed out, it is clear that France and Britain will lose their feeling of security in the western Mediterranean as part of the price of their refusal, at the outset of the Spanish civil war, to allow the legal Government of Spain to obtain munitions abroad in the legal and normal way.