574 



MOROCCO. 



amounting to $100,000, for which many un- 

 protected natives were cast into prison and 

 wore unable to obtain a trial in order to prove 

 the fraudulent character of the claims against 

 them. A Jew money-lender named Reuben 

 Tenreman, enjoying American protection, pro- 

 cured the imprisonment of nearly a score of 

 persons in one province alone, some of whom 

 were kept in chains for two years, although 

 they had paid their debts two or three times 

 over. Mr. Perdicaris, in attempting to right 

 such wrongs, came into conflict with the Amer- 

 ican consul, and by the latter's order was him- 

 self committed to prison. He succeeded in 

 bringing the mutter to the attention of the 

 United States Government, which recalled the 

 consul and sent out Reed Lewis, who dismissed 

 all the old employes of the consulate. The 

 evidence that Mr. Perdicaris had collected con- 

 demned the system of consular protection so 

 thoroughly in the eyes of Congress, that it 

 passed an act in the early part of 1887 abolish- 

 ing the extension of American protection for 

 commercial purposes to natives in Morocco and 

 in other countries. All persons incarcerated 

 for debts due to American citizens and proteges 

 were released by order of Mr. Lewis, and usu- 

 rers suspected of having made false claims 

 were arrested. 



The present system of foreign protection has 

 existed since 1767, when it was secured in a 

 treaty of peace and commerce with France for 

 persons in the service of consuls, secretaries 

 of political agents, interpreters, and represen- 

 tatives of foreign commercial establishments. 

 The Madrid Convention of 1880 contained pro- 

 visions that were intended to restrict the 

 number of protections, while it added to the 

 privileges and immunities of those who were 

 protected. The restrictions were evaded, and 

 the traffic in protections, which were made 

 more valuable by the convention, was conducted 

 on a larger scale. Every wealthy Moor sought 

 the protection of a foreign power. Even the 

 Sheriff of Wazan became a French protege, and 

 by that act sacrificed a great part of his pres- 

 tige, which was already impaired through his 

 marriage to an English woman. The conven- 

 tion of Madrid limits the number of protected 

 persons to the employes of the legations and 

 consulates, aimsara or commercial agents of for- 

 eign traders, two being allowed for each firm, 

 and Moorish subjects who accept foreign alle- 

 giance. The powers claimed the right to protect 

 the last-named class by right of custom, but 

 a-ived to limit the number to twelve for each 

 of the thirteen signatory powers. The pro- 

 tection extends, however, to all the children 

 and the numerous dependents of the protected 

 l"TM>ns. The representatives of the powers 

 were desirous of securing as proteges the wealth- 

 iest and most powerful of the Sultan's subjects 

 as a means of extending their own influence. 

 The Moors whose wealth was sufficient to 

 attract the cupidity of the Sultan or his officers 

 sought foreign protection as a means of self- 



preservation, and were willing to pay high 

 premiums for the appointment of simsar to a 

 foreign commercial firm. Many of them es- 

 tablished Europeans in some ostensible com- 

 mercial business in Tangier, really paying them 

 salaries for the privilege of acting as their pre- 

 tended agents. The latter arrangement was 

 more secure and permanent, since the immuni- 

 ties of the simsar terminate with the agency. 

 M. Ferraud reduced the number of Moors 

 claiming French protection from 800 to 60. 

 There is, however, a large number of French 

 subjects, born in Algeria, who practice usury 

 and extortion under cover of their French pro- 

 tection, while the British Government is called 

 upon to protect the misdeeds of many Barbary 

 Jews wliose birthplace was Gibraltar. The 

 Sultan is led to believe that the number of 

 protected Moors is much greater than it really 

 is, because often when he gives directions to 

 confiscate the property of some person of whose 

 wealth he hears, the kaid of the district is 

 bribed by the man to report that he is under 

 foreign protection. 



The Submarine Cable. The British Govern- 

 ment has for twelve years past sought the per- 

 mission of the Sultan to lay a cable from Tan- 

 gier to connect with the European telegraph 

 system at Gibralter. The French and Spanish 

 governments objected to the concession being 

 granted unless they too should have the privi- 

 lege of laying cables. Sir William Kirby Green, 

 who succeeded Sir John Drummond Hay as 

 British minister at Tangier in 1886, wrote to 

 the Sultan for his final consent. The British 

 legation is the only one that communicates 

 directly with the court by means of couriers, 

 the other ministers being compelled to present 

 their communications through the Moorish 

 Foreign Minister in Tangier. When no answer 

 came to the letter of the British representative, 

 he wrote again, saying, that if the Sultan did not 

 reply within a certain time he would take his 

 consent for granted. This and a third letter 

 remained unanswered, and at the time indicated 

 the cable was put down, in February, 1887. 

 Then the Sultan sent word that he would pay 

 all expenses if it were taken up again. This 

 the British Government refused to do, and 

 when the Sultan, in a communication conveyed 

 through the Foreign Minister to the diplomatic 

 body at Tangier, formally protested against the 

 cable, and demanded the suspension of its use 

 until the matter was diplomatically regulated, 

 no attention was paid to his remonstrances. 



Rebellion of the Beni Zemcnr. In 1887 the Beni 

 Zemour, a powerful tribe dwelling between 

 Marakish and Mequinez rebelled against the 

 exactions of the Sultan, who was then at Mara- 

 kish, where his presence was manifested as 

 usual by wholesale pillage. Muley Hassan sent 

 word that if they would submit themselves and 

 bring tribute in token of subjection, he would 

 pardon them and leave their territory in peace. 

 The Beni Zemonr complied at once, and more 

 than 70,000 men and women carried baskets 



