MOROCCO. 



407 





valuable, and much interest was taken in mark- 

 ing sites associated with the history of the Church. 

 Papers were read on the circumstances under 

 which the society was called into existence, ac- 

 counting, among other things, for the simple ves- 

 per supper which is one of the features of the an- 

 niversary meetings; Early -Mission Work among 

 the Cherokees of Georgia ; and " The Graveyards 

 of Nazareth," in one of which some of the first 

 refugees from Bohemia and Moravia are buried. 



The synod of the British Province met in Lon- 

 don, Aug. 5. Among the subjects considered were 

 the relation of the British Province to the foreign 

 mission work of the Church; home missions and 

 evangelistic efforts; and the salaries of the min- 

 isters of the province. With the view of securing 

 an increase in the number of missionaries sent out 

 by the province, steps were determined upon for 

 the proper preparation of candidates for mission- 

 ary service, and for the publication of tracts and 

 pamphlets intended to stimulate interest in and 

 furnish information concerning missionary work. 



MOROCCO, an empire in northern Africa. 

 The Emperor is an absolute monarch, ruler in 

 temporal and spiritual affairs, deferring occa- 

 sionally in religious matters to the Sharif of 

 Tafilet and often in civil affairs to his Grand Vi- 

 zier or Chamberlain. The reigning Emperor is 

 Mulai Abdul Azizi, Sultan of Fez, Tafilet, Mara- 

 kesh, and Sus, born Feb. 24, 1878. The grand 

 vizierate was vacant in the beginning of 1902. The 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs was Abdelkrim ben 

 Sliman; Minister of War, Kaid el Mehedi el Me- 

 nebhi; Minister of Finance, Mohammed Tasi; 

 Grand Chamberlain, Driss ben Aich; Representa- 

 tive of the Sultan for Foreign Affairs at Tangier, 

 Hadji Mohammed ben el Arbi el Tores. 



The boundary of Morocco in the Sahara is not 

 settled. The area of the empire is supposed to 

 be about 219,000 square miles, with 5,000,000 in- 

 habitants or more. The population has been es- 

 timated at 9,250,000, comprising 3,000,000 Ber- 

 bers and Tuaregs, 2,200,000 Shellah Berbers, 

 3,000,000 Mued Arabs, 700,000 wandering Bedou- 

 ins, 150,000 Jews, and 200,000 negroes. There 

 are about 6,000 Christians, of whom 5,000 reside 

 in Tangier. Fez, the northern capital, has about 

 140,000 inhabitants; the city of Morocco, the 

 southern capital, 40,000; Tangier, the seaport on 

 the Mediterranean, 30,000. The Sultan's army 

 consists of 3,000 Askari infantry trained by a 

 British soldier; a negro guard of 3,000 cavalry; 

 8,000 Mekhazni, a species of mounted police; 800 

 artillery under French officers; and the tribal 

 levies which in case of war would give 40,000 

 or 50,000 irregular cavalry and infantry. The 

 Sultan'S revenue, derived from tithes, taxes, mo- 

 nopolies, and presents, is believed to be about 

 $2,500,000. The value of the imports in 1900 was 

 estimated at 1,634,676 sterling, including coin 

 and bullion; exports, 1,767,075. The value of 

 cotton goods imported was 698,130; sugar, 

 342,629; tea, 102,508. Exports of almonds 

 were 332,849 in value; wool, 184,600; eggs, 

 171,119; beans, 154,595; goatskins, 126,- 

 368; wax, 88,153; hides, 41.710; olive-oil, 

 27,851; bird-seed, 25,870; sheepskins, 23,- 

 545; gum, 22,157. The tonnage entered at the 

 ports of Morocco in 1900 was 1,007.374 tons. 

 The crops were so good in 1902 that the Sultan 

 suspended the law prohibiting wheat exports for 

 one more year and reduced the export duty by a 

 third. 



Political Affairs. In January, 1902, a special 

 mission accompanied the British minister, Sir 

 Arthur Nicholson, to the court of the Sultan at 

 Marakesh, the southern capital. French influ- 



ence was strengthened by the removal of diffi- 

 culties relative to the Algerian frontier and the 

 assurance that France had no designs on the oasis 

 of Figig, where the Sultan proceeded to levy 

 taxes on sheep and palm-trees for the first time. 

 The French military mission at the Moorish cap- 

 ital was increased by artillery officers detailed 

 to instruct native soldiers in the handling of 

 field-guns that the French Government presented 

 to the Sultan. France concluded a protocol de- 

 limiting the territories in the southern part of the 

 empire beyond the line laid down in the treaty 

 of 1848 and determining the zones in which the 

 tribes assigned respectively to France and to Mo- 

 rocco were to live. Raiders from the Moorish 

 oases killed two French officers, and whenever 

 Frenchmen visited Figig they were liable to at- 

 tack. A Franco-Moorish commission carried out 

 the delimitation in the spring. Work on the 

 French Sahara Railroad was stopped at Wad 

 el Hassi in the expectation that instead of the 

 original route the French could obtain the Sul- 

 tan's consent to an oblique line approaching 

 nearer to Figig. He consented to its extension 

 beyond Figig to Djennan Edelar, causing anx- 

 iety to the rivals of France who fear the exten- 

 sion of French commerce and French political 

 influence through this railroad confining Morocco 

 on the southeast. An arrangement for keeping 

 order in Figig was made bet\veen Morocco and 

 France in July, 1901. In February, 1902, the 

 Moorish Governor, military commander, and 

 frontier commissioner, Si Mohammed Guebbas, 

 arrived with a force of regular soldiers, accom- 

 panied by Gen. Cauchenez, the French commis- 

 sioner appointed under the agreement for two 

 years, who had a strong force at the neighboring 

 French military post. Moorish and French com- 

 panies of soldiers marched side by side after the 

 commissioners to impress upon the natives the 

 reality of the arrangement by which the troops 

 will cooperate in repressing lawlessness and the 

 commissioners of the t\vo governments will de- 

 cide frontier disputes in consultation. So long 

 as the Sultan's representative had to depend on 

 a local force Frenchmen were frequently assas- 

 sinated and bands raided the country on the 

 French side of the border as well as on the 

 other, finding in Figig a safe asylum whither the 

 French could not pursue them. A French consul 

 has been installed in Figig and in the regions 

 beyond a system of common policing has been 

 adopted for the prevention of frontier incidents. 

 A Moorish embassy was sent to Paris and St. 

 Petersburg. The Sultan arrived at Fez on March 

 15, in time to celebrate the Id el Kebir festival 

 on March 20 and to receive on March 27 the 

 tribute of cattle, produce, and manufactures lev- 

 ied three times a year. The Sultan had set out 

 from Morocco city at the beginning of the month 

 and tarried at Rabat and Mekinez. Mulai Abdul 

 Aziz, who came to the throne at the age of four- 

 teen, had nothing to do with affairs of state 

 while the despotic Vizier Sid Ahmed was alive 

 and ruled the country with an iron hand. The 

 young Sultan assumed control at the age of 

 twenty. He soon displayed progressive tenden- 

 cies and a reforming spirit. He sought advice 

 from Europeans and fell in with the schemes of 

 reform which the foreign representatives in ri- 

 valry urged upon his consideration, showing keen 

 sensitiveness to European public opinion. The 

 corrupt system by which the higher officials sell 

 offices and extort contributions from those lower 

 in rank down to the local sheikhs who prey upon 

 the people he determined to reform. He inter- 

 ested himself in the workings of constitutional 



