NORTH AFRICA: Voice from the Past

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In the relaxed years 1921-26, newspapers with not much else to worry about worried about the Riff war. Abd el Krim and his tribesmen kept a lot of Spanish and French soldiers and foreign adventurers busy in the hills of Morocco until he was finally subdued, and the world turned to more menacing matters.

Last week the New York Time's peripatetic C. L. Sulzberger had coffee with Abd el Krim in Cairo. The 68-year-old chieftain was still belligerent. He predicted that 25 million North Africans would rise up against the "imperialists." Although he is against Communists, Abd el Krim said he would accept Russian aid.

In spite of Abd el Krim's blusterings, a major North African revolt was unlikely. The voice from the past was mainly a reminder of happier days when the word "war" called up romanticized pictures of the French Foreign Legion, rather than nuclear horrors.