1876-1879.
Sir John’s annual leave was generally taken in the autumn, for,
as he writes from Tangier to Sir Joseph Hooker,—
We visit England every year, but prefer going in the shooting instead
of _the_ season, as to us, barbarians, we find English society more
cordial in their ‘castles’ than when engaged in circling in a
whirlpool of men and women in the ‘season.’ Our stay therefore
is very short in town, and this will account for my not having given
you a hail in your paradise at Kew. We probably go home in July;
if so, and you are in town, I shall call either on arrival or return.
In the course of these yearly holidays he was entertained by many
royal and distinguished personages, with some of whom he had become
acquainted as their host at Tangier; but no record of any special
interest is left of these visits in his letters. Thus in the year
under notice, he was present at the Brussels Conference on Africa,
by invitation of the King of the Belgians, who as Duke of Brabant
had visited Tangier in 1862. In the following November he was the
guest of the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, whence he writes,
‘The children clustered round me, and I had to tell many stories
of the Moors. Captain Nares arrived and dined. We passed the night
on the Arctic Ocean, and found it most interesting.’
Sir John always returned to the South before the cold set in in
England. This was merely from dislike of a chilly climate, after
years of residence under a Southern sky, and not on the score of
health, as may be judged from the following letter to his sister:—
Ravensrock, _June 24_, 1876.
Thanks for your good wishes on my entering the shady side of
sixty—_bright_ side I ought to say, for thanks to God I am as
hearty and strong as I was twenty years ago, though I have no longer
the speed of youth. Yesterday we had all the foreign society to play
at lawn-tennis, and I flatter myself, though only my third trial at
the game, on having been the best amongst the youngsters who joined
the fun.
Eastern affairs boded ill for peace in 1876, and Sir John, always
deeply interested in matters connected with Turkey, writes in July:—
The cloud in the East looks very threatening. I hope we shall not
do more than insist on _fair play_. If the Christian races are able
to hold their own, we ought not to interfere so long as they are
not placed under the sway of Russia or other Power antagonistic
to us. If the Turks succeed in quashing the insurrection, I hope
our influence will be exerted to prevent outrages being committed
by the Mohammedans. I do not believe in the resurrection of the
‘sick man,’ but I am convinced that Russia has done her best
to hurry him to death’s door. When the Blue Books are published,
we shall have much to learn, especially if our Foreign Office has to
defend its present menacing attitude before the British Parliament
and public. If England had looked on passively, we should probably
have been forced into war.
But the crisis was averted.
‘Lord Derby’s policy in the East,’ he writes, ‘has astounded
the foreigners. They all _without exception_ appear pleased to
see the old Lion growl and bestir itself, and Russia “reculer”
(“pour mieux sauter”). The policy of the latter was evidently the
system of administering slow poison. I don’t think we can prevent
paralysis of the patient, or his final demise, but we have done right
well in showing that we cannot allow a doctor, who prescribes poison,
to play the part of chief adviser to the patient. Let him live awhile,
and the course of events may prevent the balance tipping in favour
of our opponents in the East.’
Of Lord Derby Sir John entertained a high opinion. ‘I believe
him,’ he says in one of his letters at this time, ‘to be a
far better man and more thoroughly English than any of his Whig
predecessors—except dear old Palmerston.’
In the following year Sir Henry Layard, Sir John’s former
fellow-worker in Sir Stratford Canning’s time, was appointed
Ambassador at Constantinople, and he thus writes to congratulate
him on the appointment:—
_April 5_, 1877.
I rejoiced to hear that you go to Stambul pro tem.; for I have no
doubt the appointment will be hereafter confirmed, and the right
man will be in the right place.
As you say, it will be a very difficult post, especially as I fear
in these days an ambassador cannot look alone, as in the days of
Ponsonby and Redcliffe, to the course he deems would best serve the
interests of his country—and I may add of Turkey—but he must
seek to satisfy lynx-eyed humanitarians and others, even though he
may know that the real cause of humanity will not be benefited.
If vigilance, tact, and decision can gain the day, it will be yours.
I am, however, very far from rejoicing at your removal from Madrid,
and shall miss you much. Through you the evil machinations of the
Don have been thwarted. Had you been at Madrid in 1859-60 we should
not have had war in Morocco.
On the same subject he writes to his sister:—
Layard has gone to Stambul. He writes me that he has a hard task
before him; he will have to work in the teeth of humanitarians
who have done much against the cause of _humanity_ already, though
their motives are no doubt good. I have said from the first, Russia
won’t fight unless Turkey forces her. . . . Russia will get up
another massacre when she thinks the rumour suitable to her interests
and views.
And again later:—
I think Layard’s dispatch of May 30 excellent.
He has a most difficult task, but is ceaseless in his efforts to
prevent atrocities. I have no sympathy with the Turkish Government,
which is _detestable_, but I have for the Turks.
On the other hand, I consider the conduct of the Russian
Government—which has been sapping and mining for _years_ through
agents, Bulgarian and foreign, to bring about rebellion, revolt, and
even the very atrocities committed on Christians in Bulgaria which
she now comes forward as champion to avenge—as base, treacherous,
and detestable; her sole aim being conquest. Never shall I have any
sympathy for that treacherous and ambitious Power.
In the meantime Sir John, who still maintained his influence at
the Court, continued unremitting in his efforts to abolish abuses
in Morocco.
Just before going on leave in 1877 he writes from Tangier to his
sister:—
I feel sorry to leave this even for two months, but am glad to have
a rest, for as our young Sultan makes me superintend his foreign
affairs, I have no rest. We think of leaving on the 28th. I have
my leave, but I have so much work to get through I could not well
start before then.
I am striking at the _Hydra_, _Protection_, which is depriving
this Government of its lawful taxes and of all jurisdiction over
Moors. Lord Derby is making it an international question, and has
hitherto given me _carte blanche_.
Diplomatic operations proceed slowly in Morocco, and this question of
the protection extended by foreigners to Moorish subjects, which Sir
John had so much at heart, was no exception to the rule. To his great
regret his efforts to combat the abuse were eventually baffled. But
he foresaw from the outset that the prospect of success was never
very great, and says:—
I shall fight the battle, and if abuses are maintained, and this
Government is too weak and powerless to resist them, I shall fold
my arms and await events; I can do no more.
To the same subject he returns in a letter to Sir Henry Layard:—
The Moorish Government have very strong grounds for complaint and
for insisting on reform and the abolition of these abuses, which
are extending in such a manner that soon all the wealthy merchants
and farmers will be under foreign protection and refuse to pay
taxes. . . .
In my reply to Sid Mohammed Bargash, which I repeated both in French
and Arabic, I said that, though I had been thirty-two years British
Representative and was in charge of the interests of Austria, Denmark,
and the Netherlands, and though British trade with Morocco was greater
than the trade of all the other nations put together, I did not give
protection to a single Moorish subject not actually in the service
of Her Majesty’s Government, or in my personal service or that of
my subordinate officers.
The settlement of this question was one of the objects which induced
Sir John to remain at Morocco after his period of service, by the
new regulations at the Foreign Office, had expired. He writes to
his sister in the spring of 1878:—
I think I told you that I was informed by Lord Derby that my term
of service—_five years_ in accordance with decree of Parliament
about Ministers—had expired, but that the Queen had been pleased
to signify her desire that I should remain in Morocco, and hopes I
shall be pleased. . . . I only agree to remain until I have settled
the question of irregular protection.
The system of protection, as defined by treaty, was limited in
its operation. But, in practice, the system was extended beyond
all reasonable limits, and was capable of gross abuses and
irregularities. By the treaties of Great Britain and Spain with
Morocco, Moorish subjects in the service of foreign diplomatists
and consuls were exempted from taxation by the Sultan, and from the
jurisdiction of Moorish authorities. The same privileges of granting
exemptions were claimed by other Foreign Powers, and extended to
persons not in the employment of their Representatives. The results
were, that the Sultan was deprived of control over a large number of
his subjects; that many of the wealthiest traders, especially among
the Jews, were relieved from all contributions to taxation; and that
persons who were guilty of crime escaped from justice by obtaining
a place on the privileged lists of Foreign Representatives. To such
an extent was the abuse carried that, in Sir John’s opinion, the
Moorish Government was, by its prevalence, reduced to a dangerous
state of weakness. Moreover he felt that if the Foreign Powers
surrendered the privilege of protection or submitted to its careful
regulation, they would be enabled to bring the strongest pressure
on the Moorish Government to carry out much needed reforms in the
administration of the country. Unfortunately Sir John’s opinions
on this question were shared by only a portion of his colleagues,
and he saw that nothing in the matter would be finally achieved at
Tangier. He hoped, however, that a more satisfactory conclusion
might be arrived at, if a Conference could be conducted in some
other country.
‘I have suggested,’ he writes to his sister in June, 1877,
‘to Lord Salisbury that there should be no more palavering at
Tangier, where some of the Representatives have personal interests
in maintaining abuses, but that a decision be come to by the
several Governments, or by a Conference at some Court, a Moorish
Envoy attending. As the fate of Morocco will greatly depend on the
decision come to, and as its position on the Straits and its produce
must sooner or later bring this country to the front, I have urged
that my suggestion deserves attention.’
Sir John’s proposal was adopted, and a Conference was held at Madrid
on the subject of protection in Morocco. But the result was not what
Sir John had hoped, and he writes to his sister in June, 1880:—
There will be no use in my remaining to continue the imbroglio which
the Madrid Conference has produced.
The French policy has been _je veux_, and the silly Italians, who
really have no trade or interest in Morocco except to maintain its
independence, backed the French.
British and other foreign merchants claim now the same privileges as
the French, and they cannot be refused; so when each foreign resident
in Morocco appoints a rich farmer in the interior as his factor, and
this man is placed beyond the pale of the Moorish authorities and
solely subject to the jurisdiction of a mercantile consul, living
often at a distance of five days’ journey, you may imagine the
rows that will take place, as these factors cannot be selected from
angels, but from erring barbarians. However, as I said to a colleague,
‘My appetite has improved since I find my propositions have not been
accepted,’ for now my responsibility ceases, and when affairs take a
disastrous turn I shall say, ‘I told you so.’ It is sad, however,
for I had advised that when the Powers conceded the just demands of
the Sultan, it would be an opportunity for requiring that he should
introduce gradually reforms in the maladministration of this country.
In another letter he hints at a different grievance which he sought
to abate, but in this also old traditions and what may be termed
‘vested interests’ proved too strong for him and his allies:—
Lately we have had many meetings of Foreign Representatives,
and I have had to waggle my tongue, and my throat has suffered
accordingly. I have some trouble, being Doyen, and all the meetings
take place at my house. We are trying to get rid of abuses and of the
system of Foreign Ministers and Consuls riding roughshod over this
wretched Government and people and compelling them to pay trumped-up
claims. The German and Belgian are my coadjutors.
The commercial condition of Morocco showed signs, however, of
improvement, and the Sultan evidently intended to take steps for
giving security to the lives and property of his subjects. But these
signs of increasing prosperity were doomed to be only the heralds
of terrible disasters, as was foreshadowed in the following letter
to Sir Joseph Hooker dated February 23, 1878:—
‘We continue,’ writes Sir John, ‘to progress like the cow’s
tail, but one step has been made in the right direction. The Sultan
is forming a body of regular troops, and our Government is aiding
him by drilling squads at Gibraltar, who will act as instructors
to the “Askar” when they have been instructed and return to
the Court. With ten thousand regulars the Sultan ought to be able
to bring under subjection the wild tribes who only acknowledge him
as the Chief of Islam. There would then be better security for life
and property. This I hope would lead to the development of commerce
and resources of this country, but we travel at camel’s pace—I
may add, a _lame_ camel.
‘There has been a great lack of rain throughout Morocco. The usual
fall is between thirty and fifty inches; this winter since September
only three and a-half inches have fallen. The country is parched in
the South, all the crops have failed, and cattle are dying. In this
province the crops still look green, and a little rain fell last
night, but water will be as dear as beer in England if we have not
a good downfall. We fear there will be famine in the land.’
These fears were realised, and Sir John writes to his sister that he
had suggested to the British Government that his visit to the Court in
the spring should be postponed, ‘as minds of Moorish Government will
be preoccupied and my preaching and praying would be of no avail.’
In June he writes again:—
This country is in a very sad state. Robert[55] says the people
are dying of starvation round Mogador, and cattle and sheep by the
thousands. I see no prospect of warding off the famine, and fear that
misery will prevail for many years in the Southern districts, as there
will be no cattle to till the land. Sultan is said to be distributing
grain. Wheat and other provisions are imported from England and other
foreign countries. Bread here is dearer than in England, though the
crops in this district are good. Robert has appealed to the British
public through the _Times_ and Lord Mayor, but John Bull has doled
out his sovereigns so liberally for Indians, Chinese, Bulgarians,
and Turks, that I fear there will be very little for the Moor.
We have got up subscriptions here for the Mogador poor.
The famine was followed in the autumn of 1878 by an outbreak of
disease, and in a letter, written in October on his return from leave,
he says:—
Good health at Tangier; but cholera—or, if not cholera, some
dire disease—is mowing down the population in the interior. At
Dar-el-Baida, a small town with about 6,000 population, the deaths
amounted to 103 a day! but the disease is moving South, not North. The
rains and cool weather will I hope check the evil.
Great misery in the interior. There are reports that the starving
people eat their dead. This I think is an exaggeration, but they are
eating the arum[56] root, which when not properly prepared produces
symptoms like cholera.
The closing of the port of Gibraltar against all articles of trade
from Morocco had produced great distress amongst the poorer classes,
and the arbitrary measures taken by the sanitary authorities at
Gibraltar and the Spanish ports served to add to the miseries
of the population of Morocco. In addition to these calamities,
during Sir John’s absence the terrors of some of the European
Representatives led to the introduction of futile and mischievous
quarantine regulations at Tangier itself, which Sir John on his
return at once combated.
‘There is good health in Tangier,’ he writes in October, ‘but I
expect we shall have cholera before the spring. My colleagues during
my absence had run amuck and established a _cordon_ outside the town,
stopping passengers and traffic, fumigating skins, clapping poor folk
into quarantine exposed to the night air, and other follies. As I
said to them, “Why do you introduce _cordons_ in Morocco when you
don’t have them in other countries? It is only a source of bribery
and corruption. The rich get through and the poor starve outside. It
is a measure which only trammels traffic and promotes distress.”
‘A Spaniard, guard of a _cordon_ at Tetuan, was killed, and there
was nearly a revolution amongst the Mohammedans at Tangier. Then
an order came from the Sultan to remove _cordons_, and saying
Foreign Representatives were only empowered to deal in sanitary
and quarantine regulations by _sea_ and not inland. My colleagues
(except German—Belgian is absent) were furious and said it was all
my doing, and they have been baying at me ever since like a pack of
wolves, as the _cordon_ is taken off. The malady in the interior,
whatever it is, cholera or typhus, is on the wane, but deaths from
starvation are numerous.
‘Sultan is feeding some three thousand at Marákesh. Rain has fallen
in the South, but cattle are dead or unfit to plough, and the poor
have no seed. The ways and means of the Government are coming to an
end, and the little impulse lately given to trade and civilisation
will, I fear, be lost for years.’
On November 15 he writes again on the subject:—
The doctors at Tangier, Mazagan, and Mogador have now formally
declared that the prevalent disease is not _cholera asiatica_,
but that it has a choleraic character. The famished, weak, and poor
invalids are carried off, but if a person in comfortable circumstances
is attacked, a dose of castor oil, or even oil, cures them. This is
not _cholera asiatica_. There have been cases they say at Tangier,
but the mortality this year is _less_ than usual.
Gibraltar, however, continues its rigorous measures—thirty days
quarantine—and will not admit even an egg under that. I see no hope
for improvement until after next harvest. The poor must starve. These
quarantines increase the misery, for they check trade, and the poor
engaged in labour connected with commerce are in a starving state. The
German Minister and I are doing what we can to relieve about three
hundred people here. Robert relieves some 2,700 daily at Mogador.
It is pouring; what a blessing! All the wells in the town are dry. I
send a mile to get water: two mules at work, and my water-supply
must cost me two shillings a day.
Towards aiding the starving poor in the Moorish coast towns £2,600
were raised in London, and at Tangier in December Sir John writes:—
Last month six of the Foreign Representatives had a meeting, and
we decided on raising a subscription to aid these wretched people
to return to their distant homes. There are some four hundred. £60
was subscribed before the meeting broke up, and then we sent it on
to the Moorish authorities and the well-to-do folk—Christians,
Jews, and Mohammedans, and I believe the collection will amount to
£250. Clothes are to be supplied for the naked, provisions for the
road, and with money sufficient to exist on for a month, we send
them off to their distant homes.
We take this step to free Tangier from a crowd of wretched people
who have no homes, and who sleep in the streets under arches. You
can imagine the consequences in our little town, which had become
a model as far as scavenging is concerned.
Though in the Northern provinces the famine had sensibly abated,
in the South there was still much distress, and disease was rife
among all classes. On March 5, 1879, Sir John writes to his sister
with reference to his son, then Consul at Mogador, who had already
been dangerously ill:—
Again we have been alarmed by the accounts of R. The doctor who
attended him reports that he had a brain fever, which finished
off in typhus, brought on, as doctor said, by over-anxiety and
work in relieving the famished people. He was, thank God, on the
23rd convalescent: fever had left him very weak, and he is ordered
to proceed to Tangier as soon as his strength will permit him to
move. . . .
The Italian Vice-Consul at Mogador died of typhoid, the French Consul
was at death’s door. Poor Kaid Maclean is in a dangerous state at
Marákesh. Several Europeans at the ports have died of typhoid.
The atmosphere is poisoned by the famished people and bodies buried
a few inches below the surface or even left exposed.
We have sent off the poor, with aid from here, and as I happen to
be President of the Board this month, I am attending to hygienic
measures, and hope thereby to ward off the dread disease from
this town.
A curious incident connected with this time of anxiety was recorded
by Sir John. It is related here as printed in the _Journal of the
Society for Psychical Research_[57]:—
In the year 1879 my son Robert Drummond Hay resided at Mogador with
his family, where he was at that time Consul. It was in the month
of February. I had lately received good accounts of my son and his
family; I was also in perfect health. About 1 a.m. (I forget the
exact day in February), whilst sleeping soundly [at Tangier], I was
woke by hearing distinctly the voice of my daughter-in-law, who was
with her husband at Mogador, saying in a clear but distressed tone of
voice, ‘Oh, I wish papa only knew that Robert is ill.’ There was
a night-lamp in the room. I sat up and listened, looking around the
room, but there was no one except my wife, sleeping quietly in bed. I
listened for some seconds, expecting to hear footsteps outside, but
complete stillness prevailed, so I lay down again, thanking God that
the voice which woke me was an hallucination. I had hardly closed my
eyes when I heard the same voice and words, upon which I woke Lady
Drummond Hay and told her what had occurred, and I got up and went
into my study, adjoining the bedroom, and noted it in my diary. Next
morning I related what had happened to my daughter, saying that
though I did not believe in dreams I felt anxious for tidings from
Mogador. That port, as you will see in the map, is about 300 miles
South of Tangier. A few days after this incident a letter arrived
from my daughter-in-law, Mrs. R. Drummond Hay, telling us that my
son was seriously ill with typhoid fever and mentioning the night
during which he had been delirious. Much struck by the coincidence
that it was the same night I had heard her voice, I wrote to tell
her what had happened. She replied, the following post, that in her
distress at seeing her husband so dangerously ill, and from being
alone in a distant land, she had made use of the precise words which
had startled me from sleep, and had repeated them. As it may be of
interest for you to receive a corroboration of what I have related,
from the persons I have mentioned, who happen to be with me at this
date, they also sign, to affirm the accuracy of all I have related.
When I resigned, in 1886, I destroyed, unfortunately, a number of
my diaries and amongst them that of 1879, or I should have been able
to state the day, and might have sent you the leaf on which I noted
the incident.