EMEPROR OF SAHARA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4054, 10 May 1917, Page 2

EMEPROR OF SAHARA.

A SUGAR-BOILER'S FANCY.

CLAIM THAT MADE ALL FRANCE

LAUGH

Paris is never serious when # the name of Jacques Lebaudy is recalled, and his antics in search of an empire brought him in his time into the London Courts, remarks "Lloyd's Weekly" in reviving the story of "The Emperor of Sahara." That was when a Colonel Graves claimed that he had been appointed commander-in-chief of the army of Sahara at a salary of £2000 a year. The suit failed, as no contract could be proved; but, as it was tried out before Mr Justice Darling, there were some delightful sarcasms.

Counsel for the "Emperor" claimed, other things, that he was a sovereign prince beyond the jurisdiction of an English Court. "Do you mean," said the Judge, in his most dangerously ingratiating manner, "that the little sugar million•aire has won his empire m the same way as Napoleon'l.; that M. Lebaudy has won battles comparable to Austerlitz?"

"Oh, no," Baid counsel. "Napoleon wished to be Emperor and became Emperor. M. Lebaudy has done the same." ,

"Oh!" said Mr Justice Darling, quoting a familiar Napoleonic maxim, "has Lebaudy proved him a good soldier?"

The point was not pressed. Search for a Throne

Jacques Lebaudy was the richest young man in France, when, having exhausted all the pleasures he could command for his gold in his native land, he set out to acquire a throne. The dandy of the boulevards might have been reading Rider Haggard, for he selected his kingdom in the least 'frequented part of Africa. He easily relinquished his three favourite amusements —actresses, automobiles,''and aircraft—and rushed eagerly to wild lands.

He landed (with a large armed force between Cape Juby and Cape Mogador, on the west coast of Africa. The territory here, both on the coast and in t;he interior lies between Morocca, on the north, and an indefinite Spanish protectorate on the south. Lebaudy seized the only territory not fully occupied by some recognised Power, although authorities on international law said it must belong either to Spain or to Morocco, and probably Spain, as directly off Lebaudy's plot lay *" the Canary Islands.

The Lebaudy expedition comprised three steamships, the first being his own yacht and the others coasting ships which he had chartered. He had 400 soldiers, recruited largely from old members of the Foreign Legion, and a perfect armament, including a battery lof 16 tapid-fire Hotchkiss guns. The landing was made in boats through a heavy surf in 1903, and the natives who gathered to oppose the coming Emperor drew off when they saw the strength of the force. These natives were a blend of Moor and negro, professedly Mohammedan, but preserving fetichism, voudooism, and other negro superstitions. Lebaudy fired one or two shots from his quickfirers, then pitched his camp and sat on a throne in the biggest tent of all. Then he sent to the natives and commanded their chief to come to him. The auda~; cious move succeeded, as do so many audacious things.'The chief came humbly to Lebaudy and the soldiers, by useful bayonet jabs, compelled the poor wretch to crawl on his hands and knees before the Sugar Emperor, who lolled back in the best comic opera manner on his throne with a fat cigar in his mouth. Lebaudy's words to the great man, interpreted into Moorish, were: — "I Am Your King." "I am your king. I have come to i rule over this country. If you obey me and furnish me with provisions whenever you are ordered to do so 1 shall permit you to live in peace, and shall not interfere with your' religion or your customs. But if you disobey or oppose me I shall blow you to pieces. You see those ships that go by fire? Well, I have 10,000 more like them, but greater, in ray country at home?" This bombast, aided by the guns and soldiers, thoroughly overawed the chief and his followers. There was no inj terruption thenceforward to the work of his settlers. Lebaudy established his capital at a place called Hia, a charming oasis in the desert. His men, on their own initiative, however, gave the new Rome a Parisian touch. They put up a corrugated iron building and labelled it "Cafe de Paris," with a bar, a band and little tables in front, and sipped absinthe as in their native capital. * .•■'..

The Emperor despatched his Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Canary Islands for supplies, sent other satellites to Switzerland to recruit more men, and highly approved a design for a special uniform, similar to that worn by the Swiss Guard at the Vatican. He chose a flag of white silk, decorated with attributes symbolical of kingly power. The ground of the shield was of purple, bearing three bees; above that a crown, studded with costly pearls, and the whole surmounted by a cross. The heraldry was a little faulty, but the effect was gorgeous enough. The Emperor Arrested. France was at first enthusiastic over the whole joke, and that it was in some way a dig at British influence, added then to the zest of it. The possibility** of political complications caused the French authorities to disown the enterprise. The Moors came down and took some of the army .prisoners, and two years after his landing Jacques I. thought it advisable' to remove his precious person from Africa, and went to set up a court in London, of all places, havincr }X su it e at- the Savoy Hotel. Later the Emperor favoured the United States with his presence, in which land of all others he naturally expected to be made much of. But there doubts of Ins sanitay grew, and one night n sheriff on a knock-kneed pony arrested

him, and took him to the Lowen Sanatorium at Armityville, Long Island. This was 12 years after he had proclaimed himself emperor.

He got away from the sanatorium by diving through the mosquito screen on the porch of the institution. He spent a night in the field, mosquitoes dining freely off his regal person. He was not sorry to be retaken.

It was at the instance of his wife that the authorities stepped in. When they called on him they found him waiting to receive them on horseback in a penema cloth suit, with a flag of France wrapped round him, and four uniformed messenger boys acting as bodyguard.

Had there at any time been any balance in the man he would most probably have succeeded in founding his empire, for Morocco, on his promise of a big loan, was at one time distinctly favourable to him. Possessor of millions, he was incurably mean at the wrong time, and his failure to redeem his word brought about his downfall. To the day of his death, he thought' himself a much-injured man ,and was particularly bitter against his own country.