MOORS PUT TO FLIGHT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 242, 17 October 1921, Page 5

MOORS PUT TO FLIGHT.

PURSUED BY AEROPLANES. Madrid, Oct. 14. Following the capture of Zeluan, a strong aerial squadron pursued the Moors, inflicting heavy loss. The bodies of 400 Spanish troops were found unburied in and around Zeluan.—(A. and N.Z.) The immediate cause of the trouble between Spain and the Moors is asserted by a Madrid correspondent to have arisen out of the irascibility of a Spanish general.. The story, as he tells it, is that some time ago several of the Moorish sheiks petitioned the commandant at Melilla in favour of Spain granting autonomy for the Riff country, under the patronage of the Sultan of Fez and the King of Spain. The commandant, General Silvestre, with characteristic Spanish indifference to the feelings of native peoples, took a short way with this petition, throwing it on the ground and stamping on it. The sheiks retired, deeply offended, and the Riff tribesmen broke into rebellion. Ab-del-Krim, the head [of one of the most warlike of the i tribes, a man of education and culture, | then visited the general, explained the I views of the tribes, and urged that I their request should be granted. Silvestre, however, was in no mood for explanations and drove Ab-del-Krim from him with blows and kicks. The Moore thereupon placed himself at the .head of the tribes, roused the whole of the Riff, had the men well armed and trained, and then struck at Spain with such effect as at first to shake her hold upon Morocco. General Sil-

vestre paid for his outburst of temper with his life, and his head was , curried about on a spear. There is ! no reason to doubt the story, but the incident which it describes was only the spark that caused the explosion, ■ j for which all the materials had been ■ i coming together for some time, i SCENE OF HORRIBLE MASSACRE. (Received 17, 12.20 p.m.) London, Oct. 16. The ” Daily Express” Madrid correspondent reports that Spaniards, on entering Zeluan after driving the Moors out, found four hundred bodies of Spaniards, massacred at the end of June, lying as they fell—men, women, children and soldiers—many horribly mutilated and all dried by exposure to the sun. They were lying in the streets and courtyards. The citadel where the last stand was made resembled a catacomb.—(A. and N.Z.)