THE JEWS IN MOROCCO.

Otago Witness, Issue 715, 12 August 1865, Page 17

THE JEWS IN MOROCCO.

A letter has been received by Sir Moses Montefiore, via Gibraltar, from, the congregation of Jews at Tetuan, reporting an outrage inflicted on his co-religionists by the pasha of the province. On the strength of some charge which, was afterwards proved to be imaginary, the Moorish chief had caused four members of the Jewish Junta, which is not under any European protection, to be arrested and imprisoned. Of course European residents were impressed with the greatest anxiety as to the treatment of the prisoners, whom the Mahometan authorities talked of sendingto the Sultan of Morocco. All the foreign representatives at Tangier, however, headed by Sir John Drummond Hay, with the support of the gentlemen actingfor France, Spain, and the United States of America, took prompt steps to prevent the removal of the accused; they were greatly assisted by the exertions of Mr Kirby Green, the British ViceConsul at Tetuan. After continued efforts, in the course of which they were enabled' to prove that the original charge was a mere calumny, they succeeded ia releasing the captives from their chains, in removing them from prison to better quarters, and even in obtaining permission for their families to join them in the celebration of the Passover. Among the public on both sides of the Gibraltar Straits opinion oscillates between the idea that the pasha wasintent on the extortion of money, and that he was the tool in some scheme for humiliating the Hebrew residents, perhaps* with a view of breaking up their juntas, and checking their decided progress towards a more suitable and independent position*