Catholics

protest over
the Sultan
THE deposition of the Sultan of Morocco by the French Cove r n Hi e n t has deeply divided opinion in France and some of the most pointed criticism has come from Catholic publicists.
The official cage was that the movement against the Sultan, led by El Glaoui. Pasha of Marrakesh, had become so strong and determined that the French authorities would have been courting violence if they opposed it.
Those who uphold the Government's action also argue that whereas the ex-Sultan's loyalty to France was suspect, El Glaours was sure and tested by experience.
But critics of the Government, including the distinguished Catholic novelist and journalist M. Francois Mauriac, accuse the French authorities in Morocco of deliberately conspiring to oust the Sultan who, they note, is the spiritual and political leader whose authority France solemnly contracted to protect under the 1921 Treaty, Conspiracy' M. Mauriac has declared that the ex-Sultan's deposition was the result of a long-standing ptot between El Glaoui and the Moroccan French. "We have dailyfor the past nine months—been following the course of this conspiracy," he said, "and have even denounced it to the authorities."
In an interview, M. Mauriac stated that the whole of Islam would conclude that France had violated her trust, though in fact this was the work of local French interests aided and abetted by their "accomplices" in Paris. France would have to make reparation for this ignominious act. It is known that the former Foreign Minister, M. Robert Schuman, has long disapproved of the way French colonial officials have been taking advantage of successive Foreign Ministers in a succession of weak and divided French Cabinets.
M. Schuman's views were condensed in a recent article in the magazine La Net. "I am now convinced," he wrote, "that no reform of value can be made in the relations between France and Morocco or Tunisia without a return to exact notions of responsibility and without subordination to a proper hierarchy."