14 APRIL 1900, Page 2

The French are undoubtedly " creeping into " the country

at the back of Morocco, as is so often reported, for on Tuesday they occupied Igli, the most important oasis in the extreme South. We question, however, if the movement is of any importance, for the Sultan does not resist it, and the French say that the oasis belongs to their own Hinterland. Their advance in no way concerns us, and even the Spaniards, always nervous about Morocco, do not oppose it, realising that their reversionary in. terest is exclusively in the provinces of the coast. The difficulty is to understand what the French think they get by spreading into thinly peopled lands in the far interior, which produce little revenue and no trade.