The news from Morocco during the past week has been
scanty, and not altogether reassuring. A marabout, or holy man, from Bejad, who commands two thousand five hundred horsemen, and is said to exert great influence, arrived at General Drude's camp on Monday, and was granted an inter- view by the French General and the French Consul, who believes that the marabout's influence is entirely pacific. On the other hand, in view of the massing of tribesmen under Racbid near Kasbah and also at Settat, General Drude holds that an attack is possible, especially as the country is devoid of food and the Arabs are clamonring to be led into action. The situation is not improved by the fact that the winter season has begun, and heavy rains render the movement of field artillery impossible. According to M. de Segonzac, who telegraphed from Rabat to the Echo de Parii on the 14th, while the French forces are reduced to the defensive, Mulai Hafid's mehalla of eight thousand men, camped within a day's march of Casa Blanca., though badly armed and ill-paid, serves as a nucleus for all the robbers of the neighbouring tribes. As General Drude is unable to take the offensive, he apprehends a conflict between the meliallas of the rival Sultans, which, whatever the issue, is not likely to serve the political interests of France'. We note that the subject was discussed at the meeting of the French Cabinet on Thursday, when, according to the Times Paris correspondent, measures were decided on to support the action of the Sultan, consolidate his authority as Sovereign, and hasten the restoration of order. For the moment, however, it looks as if "General Winter" were master of the situation.
