TORTURE IN MOROCCO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 58, 28 August 1911, Page 8

TORTURE IN MOROCCO.

HORRIBLE STORIES OF SULTAN'S INHUMAN CRIMES.

Morocco is again the scene of military and political unrest (says a London paper). General Moinier. in command of the French force.-;, lias fought his way into Mequinez, a town near Fez, and the headquarters of Mulai El Zin, the Pretender. Mulai El Ziu has been captured.

Owing to attacks upon people living under Spanish protection in Morocco, Spain has landed soldiers. This action is resented as unnecessary by certain circles in France and Germany.

There are also allegations of continued horrible cruelties on the part of Mulai Ha (id, Sultan of Morocco.

General Moinier, in the operations against Mequinez, where the Pretender held bis court, had to blast a road for his guns while the Pretender's soldiers were delivering heavy attacks. When lie arrived at the gate of the city it was closed and fortified, but General Moinier blew it up, and marched into the town. The Pretender same to meet him with his full retinue as if he were the lawful Sultan. The Freneh officer told him he must consider himself a prisoner. He would' be handed over to Mulai Hand at Fez.

Before being taken prisoner, Mulai F' / ; 'i had captured Hamid Ben Malek :uirl his two son*, all of whom were under Spanish protection. The two sons were beheaded in the presence of their father, who was then offered hi? freedom if he would eat the flesh of his munl'red children. This he refused, and was also beheaded. His head was kick nl about the ground. The vcent dismissal of El Glawi, Mulai I'afid's Grand Vizier, was brought about by the clamor of the people against the Government's acts of cruelty and oppression. El Glawi, who is practically a prisoner in his own house, declares that all the acts of cruelty and extortion were done at the command of Mulai Hafld himself. He called attention to the fact that the acts had not eeased now that he was dismissed. He gave the following exatnptes of the cruelties of the Sultan: The Khalifa of Basha was thrown into prison and put into chains for no crime. His house had been pillaged, and twenty-three of his women had been taken by Mulai Hafid, who had retained possession of them.

El Glawi's chief clerk was sent to prison in irons, and was kept without food and water, and was tortured. Mulai Hafid sold a high position to one Wuld, and then cast him into prison. Wul succeeded in getting a letter out of the prison, but the messenger was caught later. Wuld was thereupon bastinadoed to death, the blows being delivered on the face and abdomen.

Two Englishmen travelling to Fez were attacked by Berbers. One was obliged to hide in the mountains, while his companion succeeded in reaching Fez.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT. WAYS OF THE SULTAN AND HIS TROOPS. Some very sensational stories of Moorish barbarism are related by London newspaper correspondents who went to Morpceo during the French campaign for the relief of Fez. It is nlmost impossible to believe that so monstrous and barbarous a relic of mediaevulism as Hand's Court in Fez should exist at the very door of Europe, writes one of them. ' And the Power whom all the world has been taught to look upon as the leader of modern civilisation is fighting to maintain bis throne for a ruler whose deeds are precisely those of a Nero or Caligula. Worse still, for Englishmen to read, the most powerful nation in the world—the nation whose face has always been set against the oppression of the weak—is standing by and tacitly applauding while France fights for Mulai Hafid against the wretched people whom his cruelties have driven to revolt.

It is no secret that England is ''keeping the ring" for France in this matter; and it is probably only from fear of England that Germany docs no more than grumble. Three years ago, when I interviewed Mulai Hafid, his one fear was that the French armies would come to his country. To-day, his one fear is tlyit they may some day go and leave him to face his subjects. And so, whHe he is still secure behind the French guns, he is hoping to crush .lie people of Morocco, both high and low, so that they shall never rise against him again. I wonder if the true storv of the sack of Lamta is yet known in England. El Glawi's scribe told me something of it. The French authorities are trying to minimise it as much as possible, for even though the soldiers who committed the outrage were not directly under their control: they were associated with the French force.

The story is this: Lamta is a pretty little village, situated on an olive-crown-ed hill within a few miles of Fez. It is indeed a favorite picnic spot, and people go from Fez to stay for days at a time in the shelter of its famous olive and orange groves. Nearly all Lamta is owned by wealthy natives of Fez; and, strangely enough, three of these men between thorn provided, at a critical time, fifteen days' pay for the very soldiers who afterwards wrecked their farms, killed their sons and servants, and sold their women and children as slaves in 1" ez.

1 he crime for which Lamta suffered was this: The village happened to lie on the road by which the Sultan's forces maro icd to attack a rebel mehalla which had taken refuge beyond the mountain, /alia, winch overlooks Fez. Troops pursued the rebels and drove hem beyond Mount Zalla. Returning they passed the peaceful, friendly ami staunchly loyal village of Lamta. \t sight of the soldiers the villagers ran out, crying. "Long live the Sultan!" and Long live the Maghzen!" t— tl,e savn f JP '•"••••"■ men of Kaid Mclongi f»U on them and cut thein down like grass. They stamped Lamta Hat and burnt the ruins. They stole I everything portable, live stock, 'women and children included. I

This gang of freebooters is just such another as the horde of Shuwia riders with whom I readied Fez—untamed ruffians from Southern Morocco, who need no capital but a fleet horse and a magazine rifle. Given these and the run of a dcfenceli-ss countryside, they will speedily acquire a fortune for themselves and leave ruin and misery behind them. Hafld has had such men brought from the south to teach his northern subjects' a lesson which he fears the French: will bo too tender to indict. He cares not whether they harm the innocent or the guilty. In either case they serve his purpose in making terrible the name of Mnlai Hafld.

Well, in this, as in most eases;. tHe innocent suffered. The young girls and children whom McTongi's men brought on their saddle bows to Fez, and sold into slavery, were, as I say, the dependents of men who have liberally Helped 1 Mulai Hafld through all his troubles. One Moorish landowner gave Hafid 1*2,000 dollars. For reward, his elder son lies dead under the ashes of'Lamta, and his property is a blackened' ruin. It is only just to Fez to say that most of the captives offered for sale were bought in order that they might be returned to their homes. lam also informed by French authorities that all possible steps were taken by the French to remedy the damage done By McTongi's riders.

But Hafid cares nothing. Secure behind the guns of France, he knows that his subjects cannot harm him, and continues to rob and pillage them as he likes.

Through El Glawi I have just heard of another instance of the Sultan's diabolical cruelty. After the fashion of our King John, he flung a wealthy Moor into prison, naming an exorbitant sum as the price of his release. The sum wns paid, but the man was not set free.* At last, in despair, the prisoner contrived to smuggle a letter to Mulai El Zin. the man whom the Moors wisli to have as their ruler.

The messenger was caught, and, under torture, confessed the identity of the man who gave him the letter.. The prisoner, confronted with his own letter, was promised safety if he confessed all. He confessed. Four days ago he was flogged on the face and stomach' until he died.