12 MARCH 1954, Page 4

The Pasha and the Pistol

The attempted assassination of the Sultan of Morocco le a mosque at Marrakesh emphasises the mounting unrest in the protectorate. This is the second attempt on the Sultan's life since the beginning (last August) of his reign, and only twe weeks ago there was a similar outrage in a mosque where the, Pasha of Marrakesh, El Glaoui (the Sultan's principal backer. was worshipping. El Glaoui. is apparently well able to loot after both himself and the Sultan (he brought the latest would-be assassin down in four shots), but, since these , incidents come at the end of three or four months of bowl outrages, shootings and kidnappings of pro-French Moroccan` and reprisals on the part of the police and the French colonists it may well be asked when this tide of violence is going abate. It is clear that Istiqlal (the Moroccan Nationalist, , party) has merely been driven underground and that Freon rule in the protectorate is coming to rely more and more ot El Glaoui and his Berber tribesmen as a pistol to point at, the heads of the young Arabic-speaking politicians of the town! But can this state of affairs go on much longer ? The Spanig refusal to recognise the new Sultan must have been a serioi, blow to French prestige and the fact that the latest outrag took place in the very heart of El Glaoui's feudal fief indicate that nationalism is spreading even into southern Morocco