374 



MOROCCO. 



fell upon the provinces and tribes that were dila- 

 tory or recalcitrant in the payment of taxes, leav- 

 ing the districts thus sat upon as bare as if a 

 plague of locusts had visited them, kept the coun- 

 try districts in subjection and the cities con- 

 tented with the lively trade which sprang up when 

 the Sultan took up his periodical residence within 

 their walls. Disaffection and lawlessness crept 

 in when Bo Hamed and Mehedi el Menebhi for 

 their private purposes kept the fSultan in the same 

 city year after year. The restless province of 

 Sus rebelled openly. In the far southeast the 

 authority of the Sultan was defied, and the tribes 

 made raids into the districts recently annexed by 

 France and aided the inhabitants in resisting 

 French troops. The country between Fez and 

 Tafilt't was given over to robbery and anarchy. 

 Close to Tangier the districts of El Kasar, Arsila, 

 and CJharh were full of unrest, disorder, and crime. 

 A Tinted .States war- vessel was ordered to Tan- 

 gier in the spring of 1901 for the purpose of con- 

 veying M. Gummere, the American consul-general, 

 to Mazagan, on a special mission to Morocco for 

 the adjustment of claims made by American 

 proteges. The Grand Vizier and the Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs had refused to admit a special 

 mission to the Moorish court, and for their dis- 

 courtesy the consul-general was instructed to de- 

 mand an apology. Later the special mission was 

 countermanded from Washington. The French 

 Government threatened to hold the Moorish Gov- 

 ernment responsible for predatory incursions of 

 Berber tribes into French territory, but M. Jon- 

 nart, on entering upon office as Governor-General 

 of Algeria, preferred to use only diplomatic means 

 in dealing with Morocco. The Moorish Govern- 

 ment offered satisfaction for the murder of a 

 Frenchman named Pouzet in the Riff hills and for 

 the seizure of Boncoyas and other questions with 

 Algeria. M. Revoil, the French minister to Moroc- 

 co who brought the Moorish court to terms, be- 

 came M. Jonnart's successor w r hen the latter had 

 to retire for reasons of health from Algeria. The 

 Berbers had attacked the French post at Salah 

 Matefor and later joined the natives of the oases 

 in a pitched battle with a French force at Timi- 

 mun, 120 miles from the most advanced Moorish 

 posts. These aggressions ceased when the Moor- 

 ish Government, after a threatening visit of 

 French cruisers to Tangier, gave up its pretensions 

 to Tuat, and despatched an embassy to Paris, 

 which afterwaid visited St. Petersburg. Another 

 embassy went to London to congratulate King 

 Edward on his accession to the throne, and after- 

 ward to Berlin. Kaid Mehedi el Menebhi was the 

 head of this mission, on which he was accom- 

 panied by the Kaid Maclean, a Scotch military 

 instructor who became a Moor. 



While Mohedi el Menebhi was absent his en- 

 emies gained the ear of the Sultan. Leila Rekia 

 wished to promote her old friend Sid Garnit to 

 the oflire of Grand Vizier. Abdul Aziz was in- 

 formed that Mclu-di el Menebhi had kept for him- 

 self several million dollars of Bo Hamed's for- 

 tune, and that in London he had promised con- 

 cessions that would lie pecuniarily profitable to 

 him but otherwise detrimental and dangerous. 

 The migration of the court from the region where 

 his influence was powerful to Fez, which it had 

 not visited for six years, was at last decreed. El 

 Menebhi, hearing of these things as he was de- 

 parting from Berlin, returned to Morocco as fast 

 as steam and fleet horses could carry him, and 

 took up the contest with his rival. He found that 

 he had been supplanted as Minister of War, that 

 his bodyguard was disbanded, that his creatures 

 in office were removed and imprisoned, and that a 



brother of Sid Garnit was Minister of Justice. 

 When Mehedi el Menebhi reached Morocco he was 

 not disgraced or arrested; neither, on the other 

 hand, did he regain his former ascendency over 

 the Sultan. He was reappointed Minister of War 

 in the place of Abdesalam Zemrani, who had re- 

 ceived the appointment in his absence. His con- 

 test w r ith Sid Garnit for the grand vizierate in- 

 terrupted all business. In the end his rival ob- 

 tained the post, yet his power and influence were 

 not destroyed. The departure of the court for 

 Fez was postponed indefinitely. The convention 

 that Mehedi el Menebhi concluded with the Brit- 

 ish Government in June was not ratified, except- 

 ing a provision permitting the exportation of 

 potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas on payment of a 

 5-per-cent. duty. Lawlessness and discontent be- 

 came more serious throughout the country. A 

 Spanish girl and boy near Tangier were carried 

 off into slavery. The Spanish Government de- 

 manded the payment of $1,000 a day until they 

 were restored. All the powers supported Spain, 

 and warned the Sultan of the gravity of the 

 case. The Sultan finally sent 3,000 soldiers to 

 effect the release of the captives and punish the 

 Kabyles who had abducted them. He also agreed 

 to pay the damages claimed by the Spanish Gov- 

 ernment. Mehedi el Menebhi maintained his posi- 

 tion at court with difficulty, though defiantly. 

 In political affairs he remained the chief adviser 

 of the Sultan, who announced several reforms. 

 He promised to amend the prison administration 

 throughout the country, which has been abomi- 

 nable. The country prisons are walled enclosures 

 without roof or shade, in which prisoners wear 

 iron collars attached to a long heavy chain fas- 

 tening them together. The mere possession of 

 money saved is enough to cause a farmer to be in- 

 carcerated without triaL The prisoners have bad 

 water supplied irregularly, and for food must 

 depend upon their friends. Abdul Aziz has prom- 

 ised to appoint inspectors who shall see that the 

 prisons are properly built and kept and rations 

 supplied to prisoners. Another important reform 

 is the removal of the obstacles to trade between 

 the ports of Morocco, which have been so serious 

 that wheat was usually five times as dear in the 

 northern parts as in southern Morocco, where it 

 is grown. A new system of taxation has been 

 decreed whereby the collection is taken away from 

 the governors, who practise extortion, and is con- 

 ducted by special officials. 



The pacific policy of France toward Morocco 

 coincides with the extension of French dominion 

 and influence in the Sahara behind Morocco in re- 

 gions which the Sultan claimed as a part of his 

 empire, though Moorish sovereignty there is not 

 apparent. This claim he \vas constrained to with- 

 draw when his protests met with no support. The 

 boundary between Algeria and Morocco was de- 

 fined in the treaty of" 1845 as far as the Sahara. 

 In the desert no territorial boundary was fixed. 

 Certain Arab tribes were recognized as Freach and 

 others as' Moorish, and the two governments mu- 

 tually conceded to each other the right to pursue 

 and punish its own subjects in any part of the 

 Sahara, but not the subjects of the other Govern- 

 ment. The Moorish Government pressed for a de- 

 limitation in 1879, in 1885, and in 1891. The 

 French Government, proceeding on the principle 

 that the absence of an official boundary is advan- 

 tageous to the stronger power, raised difficulties 

 in the way of carrying out the clause in the treaty 

 of 1845 which provides for prolonging the frontier 

 line south of Teniet el Sassi by a mixed commis- 

 sion. Si Abdul Kerim, the Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, who went as special ambassador to Paris, 



