AN ARAB HOLOCAUST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 310, 30 December 1881, Page 1

AN ARAB HOLOCAUST.

The .French papers publish full details of the massacre at the Oujed Zargha railway station in Tunis. The station was surrounded by 500 Arabs, who tore up the rails, demolished a bridge, and, after masgacreing ten officials, determined to burn alive the station-master and some of his subordinates. For this purpose they heaped up 300 sleepers, on which they east grease, tow, and oil. TVhen it was ' aflame they flung their prisoners into it, as well as some of the corpses that were about. Two officials, who were biding, witnessed this a^ful scene. They eventually escaped to tell the fale at Tunis. One man escaped by jumping into a cistern, where he remained for nine hours with the water up to his neck. The insurgents went there every now and then to draw water, but fortunately for him he remained unobserved. The train which was despatched to Oued Zargha to fetch the calcined bodies "was interrupted three times, and the soldiers !la it had to fight hard for th^y Uv^b.--

-! The line ultimately became so dilapidated that the train left the rajls, and had to be abandoned, and the passengers, railway officials, and its military escort of twenty-five men proceeded ' on foot to Oued Zargha, which waa not far distant. On the return journey the two survivors ofthe massacre and the bodies <>f .the victims were carried to the train wbicb. had been abandoned, and placed in one of the carriages, after which the whole band of fifteen passengers,, four .railway officials, and twentyfive men ofi the 73rd .Regiment of; the line, set out on foot, following ■ the railway line to Medjezel Bab. During the night the insurgents returned; to Oued Zargha, and destroyed everything which had been previously left. They smashed the abandoned engine, burned several railway carriages, still further mutilated the corpses, and harassed the two unfortunate men, who, being too seriously ill to travel, had to be left behind.