which oversaw colonial rule in the protectorate. Under the protectorate, Moroccans were prevented from attending large political gatherings. This was because colonial forces deemed they might "hear things beyond their capacity to understand." French authorities also forbade Arabic-language newspapers from covering politics, which sparked claims of censorship. Under the French protectorate, entire articles were censored from the Istiqlal Party's Arabic Al-Alam newspaper, which was printed with blocks of missing text. Postal history A French postal agency had sent mail from Tangier as early as 1854, but the formal beginning of the system was in 1892, when the Sultan of Morocco Hassan the first established the first organized state owned postal service called Sharifan post, by opening several post offices throughout the country. This initiative aimed to limit the foreign or local private postal services. After the establishment of the protectorate in 1912, the offices issued postage stamps of France surcharged with values in pesetas and centimos, at a 1–1 ratio with the denominations in French currency, using both the Type Sage issues, and after 1902, Mouflon issue inscribed "MAROC" (which were never officially issued without the surcharge). In 1911, the Mouflon designs were overprinted in Arabic. The first stamps of the protectorate appeared 1 August 1914, and were just the existing stamps with the additional overprint reading "PROTECTORAT FRANCAIS". The first new designs were in an issue of 1917, consisting of 17 stamps in six designs, denominated in centimes and francs, and inscribed "MAROC". Railways Morocco had from 1912–1935 one of the largest gauge networks in Africa with total length of more than 1,700 kilometres. After the treaty of Algeciras where the representatives of Great Powers agreed not to build any standard gauge railway in Morocco until the standard gauge Tangier–Fez Railway being completed, the French had begun to build military gauge lines in their part of Morocco. Legacy French colonialism had a lasting impact on society, economy, language, culture, and education in Morocco. There are also lingering connections that have been described as neocolonial. As a francophone former colony of France in Africa, Morocco falls into the cadre of Françafrique and la Francophonie. In 2019, 35% of Moroccans speak French—more than Algeria at 33%, and Mauritania at 13%. There are approximately 1,514,000 Moroccans in France, representing the largest community of Moroccans outside of Morocco. The INSEE announced that there are approximately 755,400 Moroccan nationals residing in France as of