RAISULI PROTECTED BY GREAT BRITAIN
Two years ago Tangier and the surrounding districts were governed by
one Mulai Hamid ben Raisul, better known as Raisuli, a villainous
blackguard who was finally deposed through the interference of the
foreign legations. To-day this same Raisuli enjoys the interest on
£15,000 (£5,000 having been given him in cash) and the protection
ordinarily accorded to a British subject; and these favours are his
because he deprived of liberty for seven months Kaid Sir Harry Maclean,
a British subject in the employ of the Sultan Abdul Aziz. According to
the terms of the ransom, which permit Raisuli, if he conducts himself
in honourable fashion, to receive the sum invested for him at the end
of three years, it is probable that the world will hear no more of him
in his popular rôle; and, therefore, it might be interesting--also
because of the light the story will throw on the ways of the Moorish
Government and of diplomacy at Tangier--to sum up the exploits of this
notorious brigand.
[Illustration: A RIFF TRIBESMAN.]
[Illustration: A MAGHZEN SOLDIER.]
Raisuli, as his title _Mulai_ implies, is a Shereef or descendant of
the Prophet, and partly for that distinction, aside from personal
power, he holds a certain influence over the K’mass and other tribes
about Tangier. Being a shrewder villain than the others of his race
who aspire to govern districts, he adopted early in his career other
methods than that which is the custom--of purchasing positions from the
Maghzen. The system of buying a governorship, to hold it only till some
other Moor bought it over the head of the first and sent him to prison,
did not appeal to Raisuli. The mountains of the Riff were impregnable
against the feeble forces of the Sultan, and for a rifle and a
little not-too-dangerous fighting all his tribesfolk could be got to
serve him as their leader. So Raisuli started out for power--a thing
the Moor loves--in a manner new to Morocco.
It was in 1903 that he captured his first European, the _Times_
correspondent, W. B. Harris, who, speaking Arabic, negotiated his own
surrender, and within three weeks left the mountains of the Riff on
the release of a number of Raisuli’s men from Moorish prisons. For a
year thereafter there prevailed intense fear in the suburbs, outside
the walls of Tangier, where the better class of Europeans live. Raisuli
had many followers, and the Maghzen was powerless against him, while
raids about Tangier and robberies were of almost nightly occurrence.
Yet some of the Europeans, those who felt a sentimental interest in
the independence of Morocco and wanted to see the good old Moorish
ways survive, seemed ready to welcome ‘the really strong man who
was coming to the fore.’ It fell to the lot of an American of Greek
descent, a Mr. Perdicaris, to receive the next pressing invitation to
the interior. Raisuli and a band of followers entered the Perdicaris
home one evening, and after breaking up many things, packing off
others, and maltreating his wife, they escorted the American himself to
their mountain fastnesses. As is the usual way of Western governments
in these matters--I do not intend to suggest another method--the
State Department at Washington demanded from the Sultan the release
of the captive, pressing the demand with the visit of a warship. The
Maghzen, seeing no other way, met Raisuli’s terms, again releasing many
tribesmen, and paying the brigand £11,000, besides establishing him as
governor of Tangier.
Of course in this capacity the ‘strong man’ superseded the European
Legations in control of the town. The old order of things began to
revive. Moors were beaten on the market-place; Moslems again insulted
Europeans and jostled them in the streets; and soon, the Legations
feared, heads would hang again upon the city gates. So an appeal went
up to the Sultan that Raisuli be displaced, and Abdul Aziz, though he
had evidently pledged himself to Raisuli, readily agreed to the demands
of the European representatives. But the wary governor, getting wind
of a plot, escaped to the mountains before the arrival of the Sultan’s
emissaries; and though troops followed him, burned and pillaged his
home and carried off his women, the fugitive himself escaped to renew
armed hostilities against the Maghzen soldiers.
Unable to defeat the brigand at arms, after many months Abdul Aziz
decided to employ diplomacy, and Kaid Maclean, old and wise in the
ways of the Moors and trusted by those who knew him, undertook for the
Sultan to convey new pledges to Raisuli and to guarantee them with the
word of a Britisher. But the brigand wanted something more substantial,
and though he had given his word of honour--his _ïamen_--that he
would not molest the Kaid, the old Scotsman was made prisoner when he
arrived; for Kaid Maclean went to meet Raisuli with only half-a-dozen
men, hoping to inspire him with trust and to win his confidence.
After demanding, I am told, £120,000 (together with the release from
prison of many tribesmen and the return of his women), the brigand
finally agreed to accept the sum of £20,000 and the protection of
a British subject. This last, which was proposed by the British
Government, brings Raisuli of course under the jurisdiction of the
Consular Court, and, to fetch him from the mountains in case he should
be wanted, £15,000 of the £20,000 ransom is deposited to his credit
in a bank, subject to his good behaviour. But I am not sure that the
British Government did an all-wise thing. Foreign protection is
greatly sought after by the Moors. In the case of others who enjoy it
the power is used to plunder their fellows, and Raisuli may be expected
to employ his strength and his new position in some cunning way. The
Moorish authorities, always anxious to avoid encounters with the
consulates and legations, generally allow protected subjects to do what
they please. Raisuli may now exploit his fellow-countrymen with certain
safety, or he may direct the profitable business of gun-running--at
which he has already had considerable experience, like many other
_protégés_ and foreign residents--and no one is likely to protest.
At any rate it seems hardly fair to protect a villain in this manner.