BARBARY PIRATES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 22 May 1941, Page 8

BARBARY PIRATES

NAZIS SUCCEED THEM IN ALGIERS CLEARING HOUSE FOR IMPORTANT METAI.S Until lately Britain has "winked the eye" at the exchange of foodstuffs between France and her North African c colonies, but it seems that Algiers has , now become the centre for supplies of goods important for the j German armament industries —lead. 1 antimony and copper from Algeria., phosphates and manganese from Morocco, states iu writer in the Melbourne “Age.” , Algiers is once again the centre 1 of intrigue and clandestine aid her present position as a cleating house for blockade runners re- , calls her role in years gone by, when , she was the centre of an even more ; j desperate enterprise—traffic in hu-1 I man souls. Sailing along the Algerian coast j ' under the sunny Mediterranean sky. ■one finds it hard to realise that un-| til little more than 100 years ago— ■ until 1830 —bloodthirsty pirates rob- ' bed and ravished at will along the i 'whole of the Mediterranean coast. The | j Barbary Corsairs was a name to strike j, terror into the most hardened sea-r ! farcr in those days. ! It was the brothers Barbarossa—l i red beard—who in the early six-, j teenth century wrested Algiers from j' j Spain, led the Spaniards to the stake.)' handed Algeria over to Turkey on condition that the elder Barbarossa should be the local ruler and founded ' the Barbary Corsairs. THE SEA THIEVES i From the day in 1504 when the cider ; Barbarossa seized the galleon royal of I Pope Julius II till the storming of the 1 pirates’ stronghold in 1830. the Barbary , Corsairs, with their headquarters at ; Algiers. preyed with bloodthirsty rapacity on Mediterranean shipping. THE OLD AND THE NEW To-day in Algiers the visitor is struck by the contrast. On the one side is the white pyramid of buildings which forms The Kasbah. the fortified sixteenth century castle built by the* Corsair leaders. From the boat’s deck it seems that only the sturdy row of buildings along the quay prevents the rubble of the Kasbah from tumbling down info] the harbour. On the other side ;s. modern Algiers, with up-to-date; shopping and administrative centre. On j 1 the slopes at the back of the city, their j I windows sparkling like diamonds in the-, j tierce glare of the burnous. negroes,,' half-castes whose light skins suggests descendants of the Berber slaves: long-, bearded Jews, grey-faced Greeks, reat-l----j less-eyed Gipsies, slant-faced Slav s, ni e j Jail to be found there. Children who! | seem to belong nowhere in particular ]' i squat about hopelessly on the stone ' steps, lÝcl together in groups. stn-| I l ing themselves occasionally to throw j stones at n.angy-looking. red-eyed soi e- . infested dogs, whose stringy hides hang^ I in deep furrows between their protrudj ing ribs. SORDID AND SINISTER • Now and again one hears the shrill single-1 I lie melody of a Moorish song played on a weird stringed instrument 1 —an aimless wailing air that ends sud- : denly without apparent reason. Muffled, j high-pitched laughter issuing from be- j hind heavily curtained doorways arouses , ! speculation as to the identity of its; i owner. To those that live there, no doubt life in the Kasbah is distinguished only by its normality: but to the j visitor it seems sordid and sinister. In the back of one’s mind is the memory of the sufferings of the old Corsairs’ captives. i One recalls that Cervantes—author of) ( "Don Quixote"—spent five years of his j life in Algiers as a captive of the Cor- j sairs. Cervantes was treated more j leniently than most slaves and as an in- ! j structed man set up as public scribe, 1 writing letters back to Italy and Spain] for poor wretches who hoped that their , ; wives or parents would be able to ran-1 som them. Turning from the Kasbah to modern Algiers is like emerging from a dark I evil-smelling cellar into a brilliantly lit , ballroom The handsome seven and i eight storied buildings are set. in a I background of green lawns and swaying j J- palms. On the green slopes behind the ; city the modern stone and glass flats in Algiers suburbia rub shoulders with centuries old ornate, marble homes of (Moorish noblemen. Over the tops of the houses and shops | one looks far out to where the Mediterannean languidly caresses the shores of the bay. seemingly indifferent to the dramas which are being enacted everyday on its bosom. Before the outbreak of war Algiers was the second I ! busiest port in the French empire—seci one! only to Marseilles in shipping tonnage cleared. To-day he would be a bold man who 1 would prophecy the future roles of this old pirate city.