MAURITANIA: Why Not Corsica?

Last week the vast but thinly populated (650,000) French territory of Mauritania became the 18th nation to achieve independence this year. Tunisia quickly recognized it, but Morocco refused to, claiming Mauritania as a lost province willfully withheld from it by France. In October Morocco’s fiery Deputy Premier, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, 31, flew to Tunis to convince President Habib Bourguiba that he should back the Moroccan claim to Mauritania. Recalls Bourguiba: “The crown prince went so far as to say, ‘If ever you want to lay claim to Sicily, we Moroccans will support you.’ Sicily! Why not Nice and Corsica? That young man will just have to grow up.”