The Advantage of Enmity

Descendants of the Prophet are numerous in North Africa, but few of them have the prophetic sense so inherently well developed as Hadj Thami El Glaoui, the 80-year-old Pasha of Marrakech. Foreseeing a few years ago that a tough French line might prevail in Morocco, El Glaoui brokered the shady business of selling out Morocco's legitimate Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef. But when nationalist sentiment rallied around Ben Youssef and forced Premier Edgar Faure into making bargains with Moslem nationalists, wily old El Glaoui had different insight. "Must I become your government's enemy to be deemed worthy of negotiating with?" he asked a French diplomat. Last week, glimpsing the state of things to come, El Glaoui decided that the advantage lay in enmity.

Wearing a grey-striped djellabah, El Glaoui dropped in at Rabat's Imperial Palace, presented himself to the new Premier-designate Fatmi Ben Slimane. He then issued a statement giving his full support to the nationalists. Said he: "I share entirely the joy of the Moroccan people at the announcement of His Majesty Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef's return to France. I make my own the wish of the Moroccan people, which is that of the prompt restoration of Ben Youssef and his return to the throne. Only his return can bring unity and calm to the spirits and to the hearts of the Moroccans."

El Glaoui's switch was a decided embarrassment to the French government: both President Coty and Premier Faure have stated publicly and emphatically that the reinstatement of Ben Youssef is no part of their plan. They have long used El Glaoui's opposition as an excuse not to make concessions to the nationalists.

Three days after El Glaoui's about-face, the diehard Union for the French Presence, representing powerful French colons in Morocco, also backed down from its previous stand, issued a meekly worded statement saying that the question of the throne was "for Moroccans only." Meanwhile, Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa, the man the French had chosen to be Sultan, then exiled, renounced all rights to the throne in favor of Ben Youssef.

In Rabat, newspapers carrying the hitherto forbidden photograph of Sultan ben Youssef were being snatched from newsstands by happy purchasers, many of whom ostentatiously kissed the image of the Sultan. At week's end, as the Sultan was flown from exile in Madagascar to a Riviera villa, it did not require a great gift of prophecy to forecast his early return to Morocco.

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