MOROCCO.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 170572, 4 August 1921, Page 8

MOROCCO.

SQUALOR AND NEGLECT. | THE TRAGEDY OF SPAIN. | [ln the light of the outbreak iu s 'Morocco and Spain’s capacity to sue- i cossl'ully frustrate the rebels’- attack | the following gloomy picture is interesting.] " . , I During the war Spam was a large | neutral Power conveniently situated for g maritime traffic, and possessing in g abundance many of the things urgently || needed by the belligerents, she increaa- | ed her nominal wealth to an enormous | extent (says the Glasgow “Herald”). | 'Pile "rape crop trebled in value be- | tween f?)13 and 1917; the dividend of a | Bilbao shipping company advanced from g 35 to 1775; bank deposits increased by | nearly 160 million pounds; tho surplus | war wealth of the country is estimated g at 320 million pounds; and the peseta to- I day has nearly twice the exchange value j* of the French franc. Yet, despite heavy | taxation, mainly indirect, tho first g post-war Budget— five years delay- | ed —showed a deficit approaching 30 | million pounds, and according to a i Madrid correspondent of the “Fort- | nightly Review 1 ’ the country is in a des- | perate condition of poverty, dirt, ignor- | anco, nnem ploy in ent, and social mnest. More than half the population are | illiterate, the death rate is the highest | in Europe, thousands of beggars swarm | in the streets of Madrid, and in whole g regions of tho country human beings g herd like savages in holes and caves — | half-starved, degenerate people, without doctors or churches or schools; clothed 1 idtli rude skins, and with'their fears | and hopes preyed up by witch doctors, I as it Haiti or Nigeria. Many causes § arc assigned—priestcraft, official cor- I ruption, and cruelty, the congestion of | money in a few selfish and unscrupulous | builds, and the inherent weaknesses of . a haU-Moovish race. But all these causes, it would seem, boil down to | clerical reactionism, and the lack of ; a popular education, handicaps which, so ! g long as they exist, will make Spain s j g war won wealth as useless to her as ; gj were the spoils of Mexico and Peru. 1 g Yet a huge army is still maintained | in Morocco at immense cost in blood and g treasure. What Labour calls ia loea » aventura” eats up a million pesetas a g day. Public moneys melt unaccount- | ably. I know of a Government build- | hi<r which figured in the Budget esti- g mates at 1 00, (XX) pesetas, yet cost | 14,1/09,030 pesetas helore it was finished! | However, Spain in the mass is awake at | long last. She nqw runs her old devo- g tion to altar and throne —the fervour | which once burned men alive for their | souls’ sake and carried the sword of | persecution into foreign lands, wheie | .heretic-hunting was the pastime of such ; g tyrants as Csrlos V. and Felipe 11. i | ■Organised Labour is to-day a power | in the. ancient theocracy, and the priests | are viewed with real malevolence by an . | under-fed and over-taxed proletariat. jjj 'l’Jiis sentimeut is not new. I need only ; | recall the “Red Week” of Barcelona in , | 1909, when convents and churches were . I burned, and tho “Jesuits”—as the . | priests are generally styled—were oblig- j i cd to flee for their lives. j Men who know and love Spain feel ; j their hearts sink (when they contem- • j plate the misery of the long-suffering medley of races from Galicia.to Malaga, j and from the Ebro to the ltio Tinto —; | where I have seen the 'children of strikers, prowling among the garbage dumps in quest of potato-peelings and • ; rotten fruit. _ .j j It is impossible to convey in a brief j space the condition of squalor and negleot in which Spain is plunged in ) this, her war-rich period. Her death j ; rate is th© higliest in Europe; I have t 1 counted over 4000 beggars in the streets ! of Madrid alone on a summer’s day. ! ! Meanwhile the nation is deafened with . remedies and schemes. j j “If God ordains that we die in the | 1 dark,” the wretched villagers of the Te- ; ruel and Guadalajara regions will tell i you, “of what use is it that our fathers , j sell candles?” There is something at once pathetic ! ! and fervid about the agitation of these ’. neglected masses. Labour’s headquar- , ters is in the Casa del Pueblo at Madrid —a shabby, rambling hive where no soft j j jobs are to be had and men are obviousi iy chosen for their ability and vocation. : | '('he secretary (Senor Francesco Largo I Cahalero) is only paid £3 TOs a week ns general director, ns well as editor of the official newspaper “La "Union j Obrero.” Tho treasurer gets £2 10s a 1 week, and £2 a week is th© subvention granted to the unofficial journal, “El . Socialista.” How well these agitators are doing their work will be seen from a glance at any Spanish newspaper. > There are elemental cries for bread and water, for a living wage, for schools and roads; simple measures of public health, common justice between man and man, and State aid on intelligent lines tending to lift the people to that “European level” which is the humble aspiration of pre-sent-day Spain.