IS THE BITER BIT ?

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 184, 29 April 1908, Page 7

IS THE BITER BIT ?

A MOROCCAN REPORT. RAISULI SLAIN BY TREACHERY. I THE RANSOM RECOILS. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. (Rec. April 23, 9.35 p.m.) ' ~ Pari3, April 28. An • unconfirmed report ha 3 reached Paris that tlio Sheckhs of Ely'mes and Truso lured Raisuli (who treacherously captured Kaid Sir. Harry Maclep) from Tangier into tho,mountains, and tliero assassinated him. It is said that the reason of their crimo is that .Raisuli refused to share with them tho ransom of £20,000 paid by the British Government for the release of Kaid Maoloan. ■ A PICTURESQUE FREEBOOTER. "A very handsome, distinguished man, who takes from the rich and gives, to tho poor," is tho sort of'"Eobin Hood" description applied to. Eaisuli by Mrs. Frances Campbell in her "Shepherd of the Stars." Nevertheless, Eaisuli used undoubted treachery in luring Kaid Sir Harry Maclean into his power last year. If the ill-gotten ransom has led.to his own murder by treachery, it is a case of Nemesis. Eaisuli, whose full title is Mulai Ahmed ben Mohammed er-Raisuli, is about' forty-one years of age, and is, described by most writers as being singularly handsome, with features 1 more resembling the Greek than tho Arab type of countenance. He, belongs to tho aristocracy of Morocco, being'u sherif, or direct descendant of the Prophet, through Mulai Idris, who founded' tho Mahometan- Empire of Morocco, and was the first Sidtan of the Idrisito dynasty. He was educated at Te.tuan, but, abandoning conventional methods of, life, became a cattle thief tind chief of a banditti band, whoso doings struck terror into the districts raided by him. He was subsequently captured through a friend betraying him, and was imprisoned, being' chained to a wall for four years. Eaisuli escaped or was released, and.:cherishing deop grievances against tho Moroccan powers, became a bandit on hn international scale. He kidnapped Mr. Walter B. Harris (Tangier correspondent of "The Times") and an American named lon Perdecaris, for whom he exacted large' ransoms, 1 and, lastly, Kaid Maclean.