TERRIBLE DAYS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 January 1928, Page 2

TERRIBLE DAYS.

AWAITING MURDER. BY MOOR'S.

GRAPHIC STORY OF KIDNAPPING,

KASBA, Mbroeeo, Nov. 18,

Seveuty-eiglit little sacks, containing 2,000,000 francs in gold (£80,000), were in the hands of Moorish brigands in the snow-covered Middle Atlas Mountains to-day, and th e six persons whom the gold ransomed were back in civilisation recovering from their experience during a month’s captivity. Two of the ransomed prisoners, the little Arnaud gilds, looking pale and tired, and with tneir feet bleeding, stumbled over the mountain passes to and were turned over to the French protectorate officers. A hundred horsemen rode down the plain firing in the air, staging a demonstration to show that they still possessed ammunition. “Baroud, ’’ they cried, and although “jßaroud” means war, there was no war for the caravan bearing the gold back to the brigands headquarters. TADLA, Morocco, Nov. 18. A tale of unbelievable hardships and nightly terror was unfolded by Yves Eteeg, nephew of the French Governor-General of Morocco j Jean Maillet, his brother-in-law, the elderly Mme. Marie Prokoroff, and the Baroness Yon Stcinheil, who have reached here, after having been held for ransom several weeks by Moor brigands. 'Simultaneously, the little Arnaud orphans, four and six years of age, pitifully wasted and covered with rags and fleas, were handed over to French outpost near Aguennose, from whence they will be transferred to Beni Mellal. The Arnaud children’s parents were murdered by the brigands on October 8. Although the brigands are revelling with the huge ransom'the Government was forced to pay for the release of the six French citizens, there is talk that they will not revel for long. It is rumoured that reprisals will be begin immediately if the weather permits. M. 'Steeg and M. Maillet will direct punitive columns, with plans of the rebellious territory, which they managed to draw during the captivity. PRISONER'S RELEASED. It is known that! seve'ral million francs was! transferred to the rebellious Moors, but' just how much the Government has taken the greatest precautions to prevent from leaking out. Because M. Steeg’s nephew was involved, and because M. Steeg is none too popular, certain political leaders in Paris feaied a scandal might develop so all mention of the figure was scrupulously avoided. . • , At 9.45 on Thursday morning, French scouts, in the open country, in the vicinity of Ksiba, sighted a band of seventy Chleuhs descending th e slope from Ait Aouirat Pass. With their glasses they spied Yves Steeg and two women". Jean Mailett, the other mephew was missing. OFFERED TO STAY. Because the natives employed by the French to bargain with the captors failed to show up with the sum arranged for on the other side of the pass at down, Maillet offered to stay behind as a voluntary hostage lest the bandits, smelling a mouse, slay the women in a moment of panic. , But, upon reaching the French line, the Chleuh s found the money intact and sent runners back to get the other nephew. ' In the middle of the afternoon the ’ party arrived at Tadla, where they were ’ given first aid at the post infirmary. Tney presented a sorry appearance. Both men wore beards weeks old. Young | Steeg wor e a piece of ragged burlap from his shoulders and a pair of faded red breeches taken from the corpse of some Zouave. Maillet was gotten up i in a filthy burnoose and snappy pair i of velvet pants such as workmen wear in Paris. The two women were sean- : tily attired in once-white burnoose. Although thought to be seriously ill, the baroness, the moment she stepped out of the automobile at Tadla, asked for a vanity case, so as to arrange her hair and powder her nose. M. Steeg told a graphic story of the kill napping, but from his manner apparently expects to get the devil from ’ liis uncle, whom he has got in hot water. ‘“What luck to be caught in such imprudence,” he groaned, ‘‘when uncle particularly warned me not to do anything an ordinary, colonist would not do.” TERRIBLE MARiOH. ‘‘They forced us t‘o walk all night long, and until 2 o ’clock the next afternoon, he continued. “'They had no pity. They prodded us with knives and bayonets whenever we faltered and forced me to carry a thirty-pound sack. The women nearly died. Every few days, during all our captivity, when the negotiations for the ransom were going slowly, the tribesmen kept saying, in our hearing, ‘Why keep them? They are deadweight on our hands. Let’s slit their throats and get it over with.’ We lay awake night after night fearing they would make up their minds to follow this idea. They took everything we had. We wore forced to tear up our underclothing for handkerchiefs.”

The moment the Arnaud girls were in their hands, before their captors left the scene, French army doctors examined them and found that they had in no way been maltreated, though they were in a pitiful state. They have clean beds now in Beui Mellal, where they cried themselves to sleep, as they have done every night since they saw their parents hacked to death by‘the Moors. They will be sent to Rabat to bo placed under the care of Mme. Steeg.