A BANDIT GOVERNOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 52, 2 March 1909, Page 5

A BANDIT GOVERNOR.

RAISULI IN FAVOUR. RESTORING A RANSOM. (Received 9.5 a.m.) MOROCCO, March 1. Raisuli, the bandit chief, has been appointed governor of a district in North Morocco which embraces a dozen tribes. It is understood that he restores to the British Government £15,000, the amount paid for the ransom or Kald Mac Lean, -whom Raisuli took prisoner by a trick and held for three montns. Mulai Hafid, the new Sultan, repays the £5000 of this amount which Raisuli presented to him. The comic opera note of the Moroccan stage has for the second time lifted Raisuli, brigand and cattle thief, to the power of a Governor. He has managed to squeeze into the forty odd years of his life enough daring adventures to furnish material for half a dozen novels. He was born in the village of Tsarradan, in the Beni Aros hills, and claimed Shereefian honours through Muley Idris, founder of the Mohammedan Empire of Morocco, and first Sultan of the Idrisite dynasty. He was educated at Tetuan, but his brief contact with the softening influences of civilisation could not tame the roving spirit of one who was a born freebooter. The ancient profession of cattle-lifting appealed to him with irresistible force—and landed him in prison. On his release he found that his old enemy the Governor of Tangier had taken possession of all his property, and, failing to secure restitution either by threats or entreaties, he once more became a free trader in cattle, establishing himself as the chief of a band of raiders at Linat. It was here, in 1903,, that while Raisuli's stronghold was be-' ing attacked by the Shereefian troops, some of his followers managed to capture Mr. Harris, the correspondent of an English newspaper. After much negotiation an exchange was effected, one Pressman being regarded as the equiva- ■ lent of fifteen of Raisuli's men who had I fallen into the hands of the Sultan. A year later Raisuli again drew upon himself international attention, and a naval demonstration, by the capture of Mr. lon Perdicaris, a wealthy American, living in Tangier, and his son-in-law, Mr. Varley. His demands for ransom were not over modest. They comprised the payment of £11,000 as ransom, the dismissal of the Governor of Tangier, the release of his own tribesmen then in prison, and his appointment as governor of all the districts round Tangier. With these extravagant terms the Moorish Government complied. Raisuli made a strong governor, but he carried things with too high a hand, and at Jast the European residents made a demand for his suppression. The Sultan sent an army against him and drove him to the hills. For a long time the etruggle continued, until the Sultan apparently grew weary of the chase, and sent an emissary to Raisuli with terms of peace. That messenger was Kaid Sir Harry Maclean, who was outwitted and captured by the brigand. He was ransomed for £20,000, of which Raisuli received £5000 in cash, the remainder being deposited in .a bank, to be paid to him after ten years if he behaved himself.