MOROCCAN AFFAIRS.

West Coast Times, 6 September 1909, Page 4

MOROCCAN AFFAIRS.

A CRUMBLING EMPIRE.

An Englishman resident in Morocco writes as follows to the "Standard" :— At no period in its modenrn history has the empire of Morocco been in a more critical situation than to-day. Fez is blockaded by Bu Humara from the east and by Mulai-el-Kebir from the west [since then Bu Hamara has been captured]; the Makhzen and the Sultan are at daggers drawn; whilst the friction with France and Spain is the last link in a chain of unfortunate circumstances. With the retirement of Germany from her suddenly-assumed position of protector and ally, the Moors feel that they have now no friend amongst the nations of Christendom. There is no disguising the painful truth that Morocco as a nation has ceased to exist. The empire of Western Islam, but a few centuries ago the dread of Southern Europe, is falling to_ pieces, not from foreign invasion nor from European penetration pacifique, but from an internal decay, the inevitable retribution of a lack of pariotic cohesion. The house divided against itself is crumbling into dust. After thirty jears of "playing at soldiers" under more or less competent foreign advisers, the Moorish' Monarchy is not able today to put an army of 3000 into the field to fight for its very life. And fchis with a hardy population of seven or eight millions from which to recruit. Why? Because the mass ol the fighting tribes detest the Government and mistrust their Sovereign. They know that nineteen out of twenty Makhzen officials both plunder the taxpayer and the treasury of Islam. They believe, unhappily, that their Sultan is playing into the hands of foreign financiers. With an almost empty cx r chequpr, how is Mulai Hafid to suppress internal rebellion and hold this own against outside intrigue? The fighting forces of the country have shown their absolute incapacity to unite for any national object great or small, and the, conviction among the best-informed observers of this pitiable chaos is that the end of Morocco's independence, the heritage of ten centuries is at last within measurable dis-