PRESENT ASPECT OF AFFAIRS IN

MOROCCO.

BY ION. PERDICARIS.

THE most important incident apparently during the past year is the revolt of the Shurfas at Tafilet. These hereditary nobles, who are at the same time religious leaders, amongst whom are several members of the Filaly or reigning family, indignant at the usurpation of power, and at the concentration of all the functions of the various departments of State in the hands of the grand vizir, Sid Hamed ben Mousa, have summoned to their standard the tribesmen and adherents who share their dislike to the prolonged tutelage of the young Sultan, Mulai 'Abd-ul-'Aziz.

It is not, however, so much the troops who have answered this call to arms as the distance of Tafilet from the city of Morocco, where the Sultan is still detained, together with the condition of the roads and the inaccessible nature of the mountain passes that constitutes the real difficulty with which the grand vizir must deal. The Government forces are being moved southwards towards the distant seat of this apparently formidable rebellion, but in the meantime negotiations are being conducted with a view to a peaceable solution.

The country seems, indeed, to be sown with dragons' teeth, and armed opposition springs up on every side. The tragic fate of Amgar, the chief of Glauwa, a mountain fortress with battlements and towers, resembling the feudal strongholds of medieval Europe has, nevertheless, been a discouraging example of the futility of these merely partial local risings, for the head of Amgar himself, together with the hands of sixteen of his followers, now adorns the gate of Morocco city. True, the recalcitrant chief was not captured in battle, nor did he surrender his picturesque castle on the slopes of the Atlas range after a prolonged

siege. He was, on the contrary, betrayed by some of his own adherents, as is, indeed, almost universally the case in this degraded land where the sentiment of loyalty and honour seems to have been utterly extinguished.

It is not, therefore, the disaffection of mountain tribes, nor even the more combined efforts of the religious fraternities on the southern slopes of the Atlas, from which the Shereefian Government has, possibly, to apprehend the most serious danger, but rather from the indirect consequences of recent events in regions far removed from the frontiers of Morocco, for the aftermath of the HispanoAmerican War, the fall of Khartoum, and especially the Fashoda incident, may entail greater changes in the destiny of Morocco than the efforts of its own inhabitants are likely to achieve.

It may well be that Spain will endeavour to efface the recollection of her recent disasters by new victories, and thus afford occupation to an army which may yet prove a source of danger at home; but even this peril to the integrity of the Moorish Empire is probably less grave or immediate than the eager desire of the French to seek compensation, whenever occasion may offer, for the imagined slight endured at Fashoda.

Few fields for conquest offer, indeed, either the temptation or the facilities that this country does, owing to its close proximity to the Algerian frontier, and to its territory equalling if not exceeding in extent and fertility even that of France itself.

Native Algerian troops, under French officers, could be rapidly concentrated upon Mequinez or even Fez, as neither of these cities, the richest and most important after the more southern capital of the Empire, is more than a few days' march from the frontier of Algeria, and this concentration could be effected almost without the knowledge or observation of any other Power, nor would the naval superiority of England be of any avail to check such a movement, other than by the occupation of Tangier or

Mogador, the two most important ports of Morocco; which ports would scarcely again revert to the native authority under which they have so long remained stagnant and virtually dead to trade and commerce should any foreign occupation once become un fait accompli, even were such an occupation to occur thus unexpectedly and without any predetermination to permanently retain the ports in question.

Nor is opportunity or provocation likely to be long denied to any European Power seeking an occasion to thus extend its dominions at the expense of a neighbour so unable to protect itself by force of arms or so incompetent, as Morocco seems, to adjust its attitude to the trying necessities of the situation; since neither friendly counsel nor scarcely veiled menace appears to affect the grand vizir, who, counting upon the rivalry and jealousy of the various Powers, holds boldly on as though no danger threatened the feeble and distracted country over whose decline he presides.

As an instance in support of this statement" Ba Hamed' as the grand vizir is familiarly designated, has lately replied with a flat denial to a united demand of the Representatives. of the Powers at Tangier, who required the use of the island at Mogador as a lazaretto, where pilgrims returning from Mecca should be subjected to quarantine observation.

The foreign Ministers have applied to their respective Governments for instructions regarding this question, of such vital importance now when the plague has already reached Port Said, and these negotiations may yet lead to serious complications with Morocco. Nor is this the only incident of the kind that has occurred lately; on the contrary, the obstinacy and shortsightedness of the native officials is shown at every turn.

The United States Government has, during the past year, evinced the desire to correct any still lingering tradition of former Consular irregularities, and with this object.

in view sent here, on a special mission, Mr. F. C. Partridge, formerly one of the legal advisers of the Department of State at Washington. This gentleman not only introduced a series of reforms tending to reduce the number of native agents and protégés, but strictly challenged the pretensions of the various naturalized citizens, mostly natives of Morocco, and also laid down such rules regarding the presentation and enforcement of claims for financial indemnity against the Shereefian Government as to reduce to the barest minimum all such demands in the future. Mr. S. R. Gummere, Mr. Partridge's successor, and who is the permanent incumbent, has followed up these instructions with such assiduity, that the United States Consular administration, formerly one of the most lax in this land of irregularities and abuses, is now a model of official correction, greatly to the advantage of the Moorish Government and to the security of non-protected natives in their dealings with the agents of United States citizens, or with the dependents of the Consulate. Mr. Gummere finds to his astonishment, however, greater difficulties in collecting the few just claims placed on the file by Mr. Partridge than was experienced by his less scrupulous predecessors in collecting the far more numerous claims that originated before the barriers to this, often nefarious, traffic in spurious and unjustifiable demands for pecuniary compensation had been established.

Had this attempt to purify the United States Consulate been undertaken in the time of the late Sultan, Mulai El Hassan, the residue of well-substantiated demands would have been immediately acceded to; although the United States had not then given proof of the efficiency of their navy, nor displayed the somewhat aggressive energy lately manifested at Santiago de Cuba and in the bay of Manilla.

Another and somewhat amusing effort is just now being made by quite subordinate Moorish officials here in Tangier, acting upon instructions recently received from the Shereefian Court, with a view to thwarting the European Representa

tives in their endeavour to improve the insanitary condition of the town.

In order to deal with this question a town council, elected by the foreign residents and by the Jewish community, was organized, for the first time, about ten years ago. This board is generally presided over by one of the foreign consuls, or by a secretary of Legation, or even by one of the European Ministers. Hitherto this council has collected and administered its slender revenue with the tacit assent of the Moorish authorities, but as larger resources and further powers were required, especially to maintain order and secure the right of way in the now over-crowded and too restricted thoroughfares, a series of regulations were drawn up by the council and subsequently submitted by the foreign Ministers to the Moorish delegate-minister of foreign affairs.

This official accepted the proposed regulations, with some slight modifications, but informed the European Envoys, who had been deputed to negotiate the introduction of these reforms, that the Sultan's Government absolutely declined to recognise the town council itself. The two foreign Ministers, with great tact, agreed that these regulations were to be considered in the light of a contract between the Moorish Government on the one hand, and those of the European Powers and America on the other.

The Sultan's representative thereupon signed the amended Règlement de Voirie," as it is styled, and handed it to the foreign Ministers, and the Doyen of the Diplomatic Corps thereupon forwarded the document for publication to Prince Henry XXXI. of Reuss, actually the President of the town council or Hygienic Commission, the technical title of the council. Thus it happens that as this Commission is placa:ding the streets with the new order or rules, the Almuhtasib, or Moorish Inspector of Streets and Markets, is busily engaged in usurping the functions of the Commission itself.

The public is, in the meantime, the gainer by this double