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Show MOROCCO BATTLE FORCEDOH FRANCE UTTER IMPOSSIBILITY FOR THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT TO MEET TERMS IT 13 SAID To Give Up Fight Now Would Lead To Speedy Loss Of African Colonies; Col-onies; War Is Very Expensive Ex-pensive Wa.shiriKton In all the American discu.s.vion of French conditions, a discission dis-cission which in inevitable just now In view of the debt negotiation, there is in certain quarters a tendency to do something less than justice to the French in the matter of Morocco, says Frank II. Simonds. Thus it is asserted as-serted that the very fact that France is carrying on an expensive war against the RilTs is an evidence either of French financial strength or of a i refusal to take an obvious opportun ity to retrench by abandoning this operation. Moreover, in certain other quarters one meets the assertion that save as a matter of prestige the Moroccan Mor-occan venture is sheer waste, unprofitable un-profitable imperialism. Of course it is unfair to begin with the assumption that because a nation na-tion is heavily financially involved, it must adandon the defense of its interests. in-terests. At the close of the Civil war the United States was In a frightful i financial situation, yet Tt did not hes itate to mobilize a large army and ' make perfectly clear to Napoleon III that he must withdraw his support of the tinsel empire of Maximilian in : Mexico or we should take up arms. S Neither debt nor any other consid- i oration was permitted to interfere ! with the protection of what we re- (rarded as a vital interest. The French situation is somewhat analagous. France landed in North Africa almost a century ago. Since that time she has created one of the ' most flourishing of colonial establish- 1 ments, which was extended to Tunis' i in 1881 and to Morocco in 1911. With in this territory she has settled up- wards of a million Europeans, con- I structed railways and highways, Casa blanca, her great post in Morocco, for example, is today a city of upwards of 100,000 inhabitants, half of them Europeans, with a magnificent new harbor, splendid buildings and a rapidly expanding railway net. Inevitably the organization of the French rule in Algeria, in Tunis and now in Morocco, has been accompanied accompan-ied by native rebellions. Our own experience ex-perience in the Philippines and innumerable in-numerable British experiences have demonstrated that this is an ever recurring re-curring phenomenon. The real conquest con-quest of Algeria covered several decades, de-cades, while the last considerable native na-tive rising followed the Franco-Prussian war in 1S70. Thereafter for more than half a century there has been peace and ever mounting prosperity pros-perity in Algeria. Were France to abandon her Moroccan Moroc-can venture she would inevitably lose Algeria and Tunis in due course of time, because the unmistakable evi-I evi-I dence of her weakness would incite ' the victorious Moroccans to flow over into the fertile and prosperous regions re-gions of Oran. In reality to yield to Abdel-Krim would be to abandon a century of colonial effort which has I cost France billions of dollars and i thousands of lives, but has in the end proven a remarkably prosperous venture, ven-ture, for today North Africa is one of the great French markets. Moreover, j one must recall that when France 'went to Algiers it was the seat of pirates pi-rates whose depradations plagued all I countries. i In addition, Morocco is by all odds j the richest portion of French North 1 Africa. Americans are sometimes mis- 1 lead by the descriptions of the region in which the fighting is actually taking tak-ing place into th belief that the whole country is practically worthless mountain moun-tain territory. Nothing is less exact; the broad plains which slope down to the Atlantic are incredibly fertile, while the snow mountains supply un-fanling un-fanling water lacking in both Algeria and Tunis. Agriculturally rich, the country has also vast mineral resources. |