A WAR WITHOUT DOCTORS

By ALEXANDER LANGLET of the Stockholm Tidningen.

WHEN in the autumn I left Sweden with the sanguine hope of visiting Abd-el-Krim, I learned from the Secretary of the Swedish Red Cross that his society had in January applied to the Central Committee of the Croix Rouge at Geneva regarding a medical expedition to the Riffs. The reply was that the Riffs were stated not to want assistance from the Red Cross, and that in any case no direct application on their part had been received. From a diplomatic point of view the Swedish Red Cross did not consider itself in a position to take any further action in the matter.

On February 28th I returned from the Riff country to Tangier together with a Swede, long settled in Morocco, Mr. Lanke, whose knowledge of Arabic had greatly facilitated my endeavours to ascertain the real conditions. We conveyed a letter personally signed by Mohamed ben Abd-el-Krim el Ghertabi, commonly know as Abd-el-Krim, addressed to Prince Carl, President of the Swedish Red Cross. The letter was in Arabic and, according to Oriental custom, very circumstantial. In it Ab-el-Krim complained of the Riffi's distressed condition and the sufferings of the wounded, who were deprived of medical attendance by the " enemies of humanity " ; he concluded with an urgent petition to Prince Carl for assistance from the Red Cross.

To what extent such assistance is called for appears clearly from my experiences during a journey of two months through the country. I conversed, not only with Abd-el-Krim and his brother, but also with a large number of people of all conditions. What I gathered was briefly as follows : Shortly before my entry into the Riff country I had heard that medical attendance was carried on by two doctors " of doubtful competency, and that there were two small field hospitals, with incomplete equipment mainly taken from the enemy. Since then things have not improved. One of the two " doctors," a Norwegian masseur from Tangier, was disabled by illness from carry- ing on. The other, a negro named Mahaboub, who had been a doctor's assistant in Algiers, is now the sole medical attendant among the Riffs.

Neither of those hospitals exists any longer ; they were both bombarded by Spanish airmen and laid level with the ground. The wounded are now attended at their homes, or wherever a safe place can be found for them.

Distances and means of communication are such that the only " doctor " requires four days to proceed from one end of his sphere of labour to the other.

I was not able to ascertain what provision of medical supplies was available, but Mahaboub, who was otherwise given to boasting, stated that in the event of a fresh offensive the supplies would very quickly be exhausted. As already stated, they are mainly taken from the enemy; but some are also smuggled through in small quantities from Tangier through the care of interested parties outside.

It is true that the Riff soldiers have remarkable recur perative powers and are physically very hardy. Many of them prefer biting their burnous and having a bullet extracted with a knife rather than by a regular operation with chloroform. But it is also true that the same people who do their best to withhold medical assistance from the Riffs bombarded the Riff towns and market places. The so-called women's markets—the markets to which only married women have access—were, unfor- tunately, particularly good targets, owing to the varied colours of the women's clothes. The Spaniards—never the French—especially of late, have frequently employed incendiary bombs and gas bombs, the results of which urgently require competent medical assistance. I have come across people who suffered from the results of both kinds of bombs.

Abd-el-Krim's letter was dismal in tone ; and this appeared strange to anyone who had come to know him and his people. However much one may consider them as unfairly treated, and whatever indignation one may feel, one is not in general disposed to commiserate these strong, confident people. It is a matter for dis- cussion how far their qualities tend to mitigate the following three facts :— 1. The Riffs are manifestly in need of Red Cross assistance.

2. The Riffs desire and ask for Red Cross assistance.

3. The Riffs' opponents have hitherto withheld Red Cross assistance.

These facts doubtless place a serious responsibility on the enemies of the Riffs towards " those who defend the cause of humanity," as Abd-el-Krim himself expresses it Apparently this responsibility weighs lightly with them.. But there is another aspect of the exclusion of the Red Cross from the Riffs which lays upon Spain and France a very concrete responsibility towards their own people. Those who are in. the very direst need of medical assis- tance among the Riffs, and who suffer most owing to the absence of it, are not the Riff fighters themselves, nor their civil population, but the French and, above all, the Spanish prisoners.

From Spanish and French sources come many gruesome tales of the treatment of prisoners among the Riffs. It may here at once be stated, to avoid misconception, that I have ascertained most unmistakably from captured officers that they are treated as prisoners of war, and that all tales of atrocities and other violence towards them are inventions.

Thus, after the exchange of prisoners in 1923 the Riffs took—apart from thousands of Senegalese and Arabs—about 800 Spaniards and some 70 French prisoners. Of both categories considerably more than a third have died in captivity, partly owing to diseases due to the climate, but mainly owing to the diet, which is difficult for Europeans to endure. The prisoners have the same food as the Riff soldiers, but whereas the latter thrive well on coarse bread and oil, Europeans readily contract chronic digestive trouble, decline and die.

Apparently the majority of the Spanish nation are not very keen on incurring the normal risk of having their sons killed or taken prisoners in Morocco. Surely they should be still more dissatisfied at their lot being made harder than even purely military interests can demand. If a medical mission were allowed to go into the Riff country the Spanish and French prisoners as well as the Riffs would be succoured.

The first attempt to supply medical assistance to the Riffs was made in the summer of 1924, when the Near and Middle East Association applied to the Central Committee of the Croix Rouge. Since then several efforts have been made by the Association, as well as by the British Red Crescent and the Riff Committee. In 192$ the Swedish, the Dutch Red Cross and the Turkish Red Crescent also made applications to the Central Committee. The official character of these last-named applications enabled the Central. Committee to report in the issue of February, 1925, of the &rue Internationale de 11 .Croix-Rouge, on the steps taken in the matter. It appears that in November, 1924, the Committee sent a. delegate to Madrid to arrange for a medical mission to the Riffs. The reply of the Spanish Government was that the Riffs could not be regarded as belligerents but only as rebels, and that no international intervention " meme purement charitable " would be permitted. France, in spite of direct applications—among others privately to M. Steeg and M. Painleve—has preferred to maintain diplomatic silence.

The last document I have seen on the subject is a letter from the Chairman of the British Red Crescent of April 14th, 1926. He explains that he had done everything in his power to obtain permission for a medical mission to the Riffs, and concludes : " Now I am in despair."