The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER, 14, 1925. THE WARNING OF MOROCCO.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 14 October 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER, 14, 1925. THE WARNING OF MOROCCO.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurlcyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Hoad, and Ararata.

General de Rivera, the Spanish leader, has declared that the war in Morocco in over, that Abdel Kriin’s army is shattered and that the white race is safe for the time being in North Africa. That may be, or it may not be. Re l ports from Spanish headquarters have sometimes proved to be of doubtful value. But, even if the statements be true, the campaign has been sufficiently prolonged and the tribesmen’s defence sufficiently stubborn to show the world something of the hidden lighting quality of Islam. Nobody wondered that Spain was having trouble in Africa, for Spain as a military Power is more than anything else a joke. But France stands on a different plane; she may be regarded as the leading military nation in the world to-day, yet France also was defied, and for weeks successfully resisted, by the African hillsmen, poorly equipped and ill-supplied with munitions ami stores alike. Now, if they have not already conquered, France and Spain are conquering by joint operation and by pouring in reinforcements. It is victory of numbers alone, and the numbers have been on the side of the white races. Some day the balance may be the other way; some day not the Moroccan tribes alone but the whole of the Mohammedan world may rise. Will victory then be on the side of numbers? In the gallant stand made by-Abdel Krim, the Western world has a warning to tread warily in her dealings with the Near East.