THE ATLAS BERBERS

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19460, 27 December 1934, Page 2

THE ATLAS BERBERS

MYSTERY OF, ORIGIN. AN INEXPIABLE WAR. THE LEGION WINS MOROCCO Almost every summer' for the last twenty-five-years France has fought a campaign against the Berbers of Morocco. The summer of 1933 saw the fall of tlie last of their strongholds in the Atlas Mountains._ They were Famed at last—temporarily, at any rate; for they are amonj t!ie_ fiercest and most stubborn people in the world. Who are the Berbers? Their •origin, says -Mr 'G. Ward Price, the 'distinguished war correspondent, is a mystery which ethnologists have never solved:— “One theory is that they are the descendants o'f Jews, driven- out by the Emperoir Trajan, who crossed Africa and found an impregnable refuge in the Atlas Mountains. Another 'traces them back to the Visigoths, who crossed over the Straits of Gibraltar from Spain. Among the Berbers of the Riff in the North of Morocco, in whose encampments I once .spent three weeks, red-bearded, / and blue-eyed men of pale complexion are by no means rare.” Themselves to Blame. Their religion is nominally Moslem. They have only themselves to blame for the long -and bloody warfare with France. Had it not been, .says Me Ward Price, for the fact that these Berbers of the Atlas are incorrigible cattle-thieves, it is. likely that the French authorities of the protectorate would have been glad enough to leave the Grand Atlas as a sort of Ilagenbeck’s Zoo, where the wild clansmen might, have been allowed' to carry on their inter-tribal warfare undisturbed. Marshal Lyautey had always divided Morocco into two parts—the “useful” and the “useless.” “Useful" Morocco consisted of the fertile •plains. The “useless” Morocco was the savage mountain area In which the operations of 1933 took place. 1 Unless mining engineers find unsuspected mineral wealth, France has nothing much to show for twenty-five years’ hard work. Even with all Hie resources of modem warfare, the last campaign was terribly difficult. ’The rocky slopes, pigeon-holed with caves, made an almost inaccessible fastness for the final stand. Rifie fire was useless. Artillery could not damage the caves “except by a direct hit through the entrance. The aeroplanes helped by Hying low and dropping 100-kilogram bombs—hig as a 12-inch shell—as close to the cave-mouth as possible, the explosion of which caused a concussion of air that shattered the friable rock and 'brought the roofs of the grottoes 'down in avalanches upon the heads of their unfortunate occupants. But the resistance on the slopes of the Kerdous Valley was finally overcome only by, bombing with handgrenades, carried out by parties of French troops, which succeeded in creeping up to close quarters. Hundreds of Berber dead were 'found in their positions when the 6000 survivors surrendered to the French."

Thirst as a Weapon. Early the French"* had another powerful weapon ait 'their 'command — thirst. The tribesmen, driven to the heights, “had no longer any access to •the .streams in the valleys below. They were dependent for the water required by their flocks and families solely -upon the small wells and occasional springs which occurred here and there in the ravines and 'Miasms of the mountain. ... It became the main

•objective to bring as many of the ■points 'd’eau as 'possible under the lire of the French machine-guns, so as to deny the Berbers access to them. “ The sufferings of the tribesmen, and especially of their wives and children, among the sun-baked limestone ■rocks were very severe, and at each sunrise many a Berber corpse was to be seen lying-around lire springs which, •during the night, were 'constantly swept by bursts of machine-gun bullets.”

So Ouskounti, the Berber chief, surrendered with th'e rest of the diehards. The hated Christian had not, as the Berber prophecy foretold, been overthrown by 'the gods themselves, “who would turn his bullets to wax, his bursting shells to harmless puffs of •smoke, and the fire from his machineguns to streams of perfumed water." •One cannot help a feeling of sympathy for the tribesmen. To visualise 'the situation, says Mr Ward Price, “one has to imagine that Great Britain, which is one-quainter the size of Morocco, had been occupied and gradually subdued 1 over a period of twentyfive years by a nation different in race, ■but of far superior 'culture and technical resources, and ’that the last and most determined Britons, with their families and -all their movable property, were making a supreme and desperate final stand on the summit of Scawfell.” Of Iris indomitable opponents a French general said: “ I like them; 1 admire them; I kill them.” Where Identity May Be Lost. The brunt of the fighting was borne by France’s famous Foreign Legion. More rubbish lias been written about (Continued in next column.) /

the Legion than’about any other corps in the world. Mr Ward Price corrects much of this. All that France asks of her Legionaries "is that they shall be good soldiers. Their past career, their present .morals, and their political opinions are matters of complete indifference to the French authorities. No attempt is made to win the sympathies of the members of the Legion for the country to whose service their lives are pledged. Honours are rendered twice 'daily to the French tri-colour in every garrison, camp, and outpost of the Foreign Legion, but it is 'to the regimental colours and not to the national Hag that 'the compliment is paid.” The Legionary has.to be of tough material, for lie comes up against men equally lough. Cruelty is second nature to the Berber:— “ ‘What would you do to me if It was 1 who was hurt?’ asked a French army doctor who knew something'of the language, when lie was tending the injuries of a wounded tribesman on the hillside. ‘ Cut your throat,’ was the prompt and frank reply.” The women are as hardy as the men. The Berber tribesman, we are told, “goes to war en famine. Ills wife and. children accompany him as closely as possible to the battlefield, and the former maintains a domestic supply service, even during the heat of the combat. She crawls up with a gourd of water and a fiat, brown, circular loaf of bread to refresh her husbandts combative energy at midday, and continues to encourage him by shrill screams from a little distance to the rear throughout the whole of the conflict." But will the Berbers remain in peaceful submission for long? Some think they would die of boredom with no one to fight against. But the Legion is always ait hand to deal with emergencies. “ What France owes to her Foreign Legion,” «ays Mr Ward Price, “is beyond estimation. Without it she would never have possessed that vast North African Empire which is now so solidly in her hands.”