Marshal Martinez Campos may be intending an immediate campaign in
the Riff country. It is said that he is, and that the great Arab tribes are preparing to resist him to the death. His actions, however, suggest to cool observers that he has a different plan in his head. It is, to draw in the external forts around Melilla, and demand of the Sultan a neutral zone, within which neither Moors nor Spaniards shall be allowed to live. This will apparently increase Spanish influence, and be at all events a treaty dictated by Spain ; while it will allow the Spaniards to keep Melilla without a permanent garrison of ten thousand men. The Marshal evidently does not desire either to stir up the Moors, or to be bullied by Chauvinist opinion at home ; for he has issued two proclamations, one threatening death to any soldier who outrages Kabyles, and the other prohibiting the publication of any military news under the same penalty.
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