The special correspondent of the Times, writing in Monday's paper,
discusses the prospects of the Spanish campaign in Morocco. They are by no means bright. The army, he says, is suffering morally and physically by remaining cooped up behind entrenchments. When once disease gets a firm hold of the troops, it is likely to be a more formidable enemy than the Riffs themselves. Moreover, for tribesmen like the Riffs to gain in confidence is to gain in numbers. So long as the Spaniards are idle confidence is being transferred at a rapid rate from the attackers to the attacked. Finally, there is the financial difficulty, which is perhaps greater than all the other difficulties together. The correspondent says that the campaign is supposed to be costing a million pesetas (£37,000) a day. We do not see how an army of sixty thousand men can be maintained on much less, and yet this is an enormous drain on a poor nation like Spain. We hope that Senor Moret will be able to extricate himself from the war with dignity, but to extricate himself at any cost.
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