The continuance of anarchy in Morocco has received a fresh
and striking illustration. Mr. Perdicaris, a wealthy American citizen of Greek extraction, well known to all visitors to Tangier, was with his stepson, Mr. Varley, a British subject, carried off from his villa three miles outside Tangier by a band of armed Moors headed by a notorious brigand named Raisuli. As the Times correspondent, who was captured by Raisuli last year,
points out, this culminating outrage, directed against a uni- versally popular resident who for many years has been the prin- cipal benefactor of the poor in Tangier, indicates the growing antagonism of the Moors towards Europeans and the increas- ing helplessness of the Sultan. The terms on which Raisuli is prepared to release his prisoners are not yet fully known, but are said to include the withdrawal of the Sultan's army at present engaged in fighting refractory tribes. The Washington Government and our own, we may be sure, will not be con- tent with ineffectual protests ; but in any case the incident is bound to apply driving power to one of the most important clauses of the Anglo-French Convention. -
Previous page
