Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎395v] (806/978)

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liberal constitutional Monarchy is their
only chance of getting rid of the present
regime and at the same time offering the
opportunity of freedom to reorganize their
ranks and continue the campaign for the
Third Spanish Republic.
TANGIER
On 9th April the Sultan of Morocco
arrived in Tangier for a brief visit which
had been contemplated for some months.
So rare an event was calculated to attract
a crowd of tribesmen and others such as
would tax the town’s resources in the
matters of food, accommodation and police.
Thanks, however, to the arrangements
made by the international Committee of
Control which, incidentally, is this year
under the chairmanship of the British
Consul-General, all passed off happily.
His Majesty Sidi Mohammed travelled by
train from French Morocco with a suite of
some fifty persons and his black guard of
five hundred. On entering the Spanish
zone the Sultan was received by his repre
sentative there (the Khalifa) and the
Spanish High Commissioner, General
Varela. In a brief interview given to a
Cairo press correspondent the Sultan said
that he attached great importance to the
unity of Morocco and that Morocco shared
the views and aspirations of the Arab
League. In an extempore speech the
Khalifa for ten minutes extolled the
dynasty and qualities of the Sultan, hailing
him as the “ Commander of the Faith
ful ’ ’ and contriving to make no reference
to France or Spain. The Spanish
authorities from the first had deprecated
the proposed visit, being anxious, as ever,
to avoid anything which might reinforce
the constant French claim that the Spanish
zone is only a part—sublet to Spain—of
the French protectorate of Morocco. General
Varela accordingly found it convenient to
keep away from Tangier rather than play
second fiddle there to M. Labonne, the
French Resident-General at Rabat, who
attended the ceremonies as the Sultan’s
Foreign Minister.
There is enough religious fervour and
national feeling in the air of Morocco
today to make it sure that, as both their
temporal sovereign and their spiritual
chief, the Sultan would receive an
enthusiastic welcome from the assembled
concourse. In speaking to the foreign
representatives he recalled Morocco’s
friendly relations with the Western
Powers, and he asked them to pass on to
their Governments his view that it was only
logical for the Moroccan people to realise
the rights to which all peoples aspire. To
the Moors he emphasised the need for the
unity of Islam and of all Morocco and, if
correctly reported, he said that local
grievances were being listened to; that
education was necessary for the progress
which he ardently hoped to see Moi^co
make; and that there must be order, dis
cipline and a proper fulfilment of duty.
These utterances are in harmony with the
guarded sympathy which the Sultan has
been showing in recent years for Moorish
nationalism-—without taking a lead in it—
but being considerably more than the
parrot-cry of a mere puppet, they have
caused some concern in Paris. The heir
apparent, Mulay Hassan, who is still a
youth, appears to have gone rather further
when opening a Koranic school. After
emphasising, as his father had done, that
all Morocco was one, he is reported to have
called, amid applause, for its independence.
Thus the Tangier microcosm, invested
though it often is with an air of comic
opera, sometimes contains germs of far-
reaching importance.
ITALY
It is now becoming increasingly
apparent that drastic steps must be taken
by the Italian Government to check infla
tion and to prevent financial collapse.
Senator Einaudi, the Governor of the Bank
of Italy and well-known Liberal-economist,
whose statements on the economic situation
of the country have always been outspoken
and realistic even during the Fascist
regime, has now presented the annual Bank
Report for the financial year 1946. He has
stated that the sums on deposit with Italian
Banks showed an increase of 315,000
million lire compared with the previous
year, but that the relative impoverishment
of the middle-class depositors constituted
a negative factor for revival and recon
struction. At the end of 1946 circulation
of bank-note and Am. lire showed an
increase of 123,002 million lire compared
with 1945. “In Italy,” he said, “ we are
still far from the point where every new
monetary issue is useless and is no longer
of any use to the Treasury, but we are at
a parting of the ways : either we must give
up useless expenses and those which can
be deferred or else we must face inflation.”
There is no doubt that Senator Einaudi
is justified in his anxiety. Signor
Gampilli, the Minister for Finance,
revealed some weeks ago that the Budget
showed a deficit of 610,000 million, instead
of the estimated deficit of 193,000 million
lire. I he Government are making