The special correspondent of the Times with the Spanish army
in Moroeeo gives in Monday's paper a gloomy account
of the campaign. "There seems even now," he says, "to be an impression in Europe that the Spaniards hold Mount Gurugu. This is not the case." The majority of the Spanish troops are entrenched between Melilla and Zeluan in such dispositions that they seem to the correspondent to be those of an army which has been "forced to surrender the initiative." He thinks that the Spaniards "fail to appreciate the capacity of the modern firearm. They hold with a battalion positions that could be held with a single company." He compares the Riffs with the Yagistan Pathans of the Indian frontier, but remarks that nothing is known of the numbers of these dangerous fighting men, as the Spaniards have no Intelligence Department. This most interesting despatch makes it clear that the Spaniards are avoiding the mountains, and so long as they do that they will never reduce their enemy. With an army of about sixty thousand men hardly anything is being accomplished. Compare the case of Clive in India, who forced on and won the battle of Plessey with a little over three thousand men. The best thing we can hope for is that the new Spanish Government will be able to make good enough ground to secure the northern part of the peninsula of Melilla, and to free itself from a most expensive and hazardous enterprise.
Previous page
