ultural life going, and
give to the famous "business as usual" a really justifiable application.

General Lyautey completely succeeded, and the first impression of all
travellers arriving in Morocco two years later was that of suddenly
returning to a world in normal conditions. There was even, so complete
was the illusion, a first moment of almost painful surprise on entering
an active prosperous community, seemingly absorbed in immediate material
interests to the exclusion of all thought of the awful drama that was
being played out in the mother country, and it was only on reflection
that this absorption in the day's task, and this air of smiling faith in
the future, were seen to be Morocco's truest way of serving France.

For not only was France to be supplied with provisions, but the
confidence in her ultimate triumph was at all costs to be kept up in the
native mind. German influence was as deep-seated as a cancer: to cut it
out required the most drastic of operations. And that operation
consisted precisely in letting it be seen that France was strong and
prosperous enough for her colonies to thrive and expand without fear
while she held at bay on her own frontier the most formidable foe the
world has ever seen. Such was the "policy of the smile," consistently
advocated by General Lyautey from the beginning of the war, and of which
he and his household were the first to set the example.

III

The General had said that he would not "break the egg-shell"; but he
knew that this was not enough, and that he must make it appear
unbreakable if he were to retain the confidence of the natives.

How this was achieved, with the aid of the few covering troops left him,
is still almost incomprehensible. To hold the line was virtually
impossible: therefore he pushed it forward. An anonymous writer in
_L'Afrique Francaise_ (January, 1917) has thus described the manoeuvre:
"General Henrys was instructed to watch for storm-signals on the front,
to stop up the cracks, to strengthen weak points and to rectify doubtful
lines. Thanks to these operations, which kept the rebels perpetually
harassed by always forestalling their own plans, the occupied territory
was enlarged by a succession of strongly fortified positions." While
this was going on in the north, General Lamothe was extending and
strengthening, by means of pacific negotiations, the influence of the
Great Chiefs in the south, and other agents of the Residency were
eng