THE SIEGE" OF FEZ?

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1458, 5 June 1912, Page 7

THE SIEGE" OF FEZ?

GENERAL REMITS A TINE. By Telesrapn—Press Association—Copyright. Paris, June 3. Owing to the frieudliuess of the inhabitants, General Lyautey, the French Commander-ih-Chief, has. remitted the war contribution of , .£-10,000 levied pn I'ez. The decision has given intense satisfaction. REBELS TOTALLY DISPERSED. (Rcc. June t, 11' p.m.) Fez, June 4. The rebels have been totally dispersed. They have lost 000 killed.' It has been decided that tlie Sultan shall leave the.city in four or five days. He will be escprted by two battalions. HATRED OF THE FRENCH. The present disturbances in Morocco began witliya. mutiuy among the Meorish troops at Tez in April. The well-inform-ed correspondent of tho "Cologne Gazette in Morocco, in writing of the causes of the revplt, derided tho idea that it was due solely, or even chiefly, to the arrears of pay. The Moroccan native troops, ho say 3, are used to such hitches in obtaining pay. and they generally help themselves, 'if needs be, in their own way by levying contributions on the villages or b.v selling their uniforms, and even rifles and ammunition. It is. according to him., the general hatred pf the French, brougnt to a boiling point by tho conclusion pf iue protectorate, which is primarily resppnsiblo for the outbreak. It has been well known for some time, lie says, that native officers, notables, and members of the clergy were carrying on ?. propaganda against the French domination, and one may well suppose that their agitation penetrated into the ranks of the military. Pome time ago a French instructor was shot by a nativo spldier, and so form'dal)lo did the fermentation among the natives near Fez grow that at one moment the Sultan, Mulai Hafirt, himself was seized with fear for his life, and was inclined to refuse, his signature to the treaty which M. Regnant was bringing from Pari*. On April 6 tho Spanish paper published at Taugier, "El Porvenir, wrote: ''It is clear that the state of native feelings is not fo calm as one could •wish. There is considerable exoitemout ampng the, tribes in the neighbourhood of Fez. and this excitement finds ■ an echo within the walls of the city itself.