5 JUNE 1926, Page 2

Abd-el-Krim surrendered to the French, who received him honourably, on

May 27th. This means the end of fighting in Morocco on the scale of the last five years for Spain, of the last year for France. Though the various tribes are making their submissions readily, it can hardly be hoped that there will be no flickers of guerrilla warfare for a while, but there is no prospect of any leader arising who will unite the tribes or inspire fear as Abd-el-Krim has done. He is an Oriental who inherited a veneer of Westernism which was developed by education and residence in Spain. Without being in any way a pleasant person to deal with, and without our standards of honesty which perhaps he judged from experience of a low type of European concession-hunter, he aroused considerable sympathy here. It was felt that Spain made a mess of her Colonial enterprise and that the Riffis were justified, if they had any national pride, in trying to end or mend the Spanish domination, He had less justification and less foresight when he lost the neutrality of the French. So long, at any rate, as Marshal Lyautey was there, he had little complaint to make against France. If he is compelled, nominally by the Sultan, to leave Morocco, no one will be surprised. The Spaniards are said to have demanded his person.