“Don’t you believe it!” said the old soldier. “The Government sold Cuba to put money into their own pockets, and they will do the same in Morocco. Do you know what happened to us one day in the Cuban War? We found ourselves attacked by the enemy, and we had nothing, _nothing_ to fight with. There were no officers; the chiefs were in a safe place, spending the money they had robbed us of (for we got no pay), and the inferiors were hiding from the Cubanos wherever they could, behind us, to be out of the fighting. I assure you this is true. When the Cubanos came upon us we tried to load the guns, but many of the balls did not fit, and we had no wadding.[19] We tore up our white drawers and our shirts to make wadding, but what was the good? It was hopeless for us to fight. And seeing the enemy upon us and we helpless to defend ourselves, we went mad with rage and despair and turned on each other, not knowing what we were doing. It was all the fault of the Jesuits at home, who stole the money which the nation gave for the Army. And it will be the same thing now with this Maura and his Jesuits, you will see!” “It is all quite true,” said another old man. “My son has often told me the same. He said they tied their officers to the gun-carriages in [Illustration: A FORT ON MOUNT GURUGÚ. The War in Melilla.] his company more than once to prevent them from running away. They said: ‘If we, the common soldiers, are to be killed like flies, at least you, the officers, shall take your share.’” With such traditions firmly embedded in the popular belief, it would not have been surprising had a real spirit of mutiny been shown on the calling out the reservists in July, 1909. But this was not the case. In an interview given to a representative of _Le Journal_ of Paris, in November, 1909, by General Primo de Rivera, who was Minister of War previous to the disasters of July, that officer threw some light on Señor Maura’s conduct of military affairs, and explained why he had no alternative but to retire from office, to be abused by the Clericalists in power as “unpatriotic” for so doing. Here is a brief résumé of his statement: