That a military expedition into Morocco would be an extremely difficult undertaking is the opinion expressed in an interview by General Duchesne, who commanded the French army in Madagascar and has had fourteen years' service in the province of Oran, bordering on Morocco, He said: "T estimate that at least 50,000 fully-seasoned troops would be required, bnt do not see where they could be found. The nucleus would doubtless be formed by the 19th army corps, which is permanently stationed in Algeria. Its place in Algeria would have to be supplied by other troops, and. the home contingents) are already so weak that we cannot take any considerable number of men away without reducing the battalions to mere skeletons. Assuming that we succeed in collecting our forces, we should probably have to form two columns, one starting from Ujda and the other from Casablanca or Larache, with orders to join forces at Fez. All supplies would have to be brought from the bases, and I really do not see how such lines of communication could be protected, expecially against} the Moors who are bold, enterprising and well armed. The whole affair striker me as bristling with obstacles of all kinds."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.