AN INHUMAN SULTAN

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 33

AN INHUMAN SULTAN

MOROCCO, August 31. The Sultan of Morocco (Mulai Hand), with a view to compelling Buhamara to hand over any moneys there are in ioreign ■banks, proposes to place him in a .wooden shirt studded with nails inside, in order to extort a confession. LONDON, September 2. The Powers, in a collective note, have summoned Mulai Hafid to prohibit the torture of prisoners and of punishments involving mutilation or a lingering death, death. September 4. Mulai Hafid, Sultan of Morocco, lias undertaken to abolish, torture. Fearful •stories of th© cruelties practised by Mulai Hafid the Sultan of Morocco, have boan related by persons who have- been in Fez. During the present year the Sultan's elder brother, Mulai Mohammed, who had beon passed over by his father as his successor, raised the standards of revolt, against Mulai Hafid. He was captured, leaded with rusty chains, and brought to Fez, where, after astormy interview with the Sultan, he was seen no more. It is supposed that he was poisoned. Tho fate of his followers has been more terrible. They have been so cruelly tortured that the British Con3ul, Mr R. Lister, felt it his duty to protest. The Standard's correspondent at Fez has given details of the punishments inflicted; He says that Mulai Hafid ordered the right hand of each man and woman among the pn-isoners to be cut off, and the- stumps to be plunged in boiling pitch. Two important prisoners were ordered to lose their right hands and right feet, and to have their teeth drawn. Another conrespondent declares that one unfortunate wretch was ordered to have his lower jaw shatt-sr-cd by the blow of a hammer, another to have his ey-es gouged out, and a third to have the palm of his hands slashed with _ a razor, salted, and sewn up in a leather glove,' so that when the wounds healed "the fingers would grow into the palm, and the hand b2coma a useless stump. The darker side of life at the Moorish Court is graphically presented m an article in the July number of the National Review. The writer, after referring to the revival of the poieon cup, under the fanatical and cruel Mulai Hafid, and to tho rumoured fate of Ben Slim&n, a former Foreign Minister, who cam© to Fez to look for employment, and of Mulai Mohammed, proceeds to deeeribe one of the incidents referred to in cable messages. "Of the followers of Mulai Mohammed," he writes, " some were imprisoned and others put to tho torture. Sad was the fate of a local preacher who had the audacity and indiscretion to write in his favour. One fine day, as the troops were being drilled, and the bands were playing, and tha Consuls and visitois were- awaiting their audiences, the propagandist was brought up for trial and for punishment. Hafid, wishing to share the responsibility with tho proper authorities, handed him over to the Ouelama, or Sacred College, who, being very much afraid of the Sultan, were not long in giving judgment. The unfortunate man was sentenced to have the palms of his hands cut open, filled with 6alt, and his clenched fists sswn up in leather gloves, so that, as the wounds healed, they would grow together " The Sultan sits cro&s-l-egged on a yellow sofa, in his groen summer house; around him are r&nged the judges, who had t>ronouneed sentence ; on the ground at t.he foot of the ste-ps of the summer house lies tho preacher, who had been found guilty, held down by four soldiers. Kneeling over the prostrate form is the executioner, with his knife ; an assistant stands ready with his bag of salt ; and close at hand is one of the most respected saddlers in Fez, carrying a piece of leather, a needle and thread, ready to sew up the offending hands. Cries of 'Ya Sidi ! Ya Sidi !' come from miserable wretches, who are- trying to attract tho Svltan's attention. Ssatcd up against the wall are the Ministers, some chatting, some writing, others psaoefully asle-ap. The troops fill the square, and in half a dozen places little groups of men, gathered round a prostrate form, are busy administering the morning's floggings. Mules and horses gallop widly about the square, and break in th^ raalcs. Hig-h above the sound of the floggings, the cries of the victims, and the shouts of 'Ya Sidi ! Ya Sidi !' there sounds incessantly the discordant opening bars of 'Tho British Grenadiers.,' " The Cock of the North,' and 'The Marseillaise.' " *<•