TWO DAYS' BATTLE IN MOROCCO.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

TWO DAYS' BATTLE IN MOROCCO.

DESPERATE ONSLAUGHT BY Y . TRIBESMEN. , A PATHETIC STORY. PARIS, February 19. News has been received of heavy lighting m Morocco, m which the French forces have sustained serious losses. A message from Admiral Philibert reports that the engagement lasted for two days, and from the brief details supplied it appears to have been of the most desperate character. . The casualties on the French side ■ avo stated to be two officers, including C'apt. Boulhant, and several men killed, and three officers and twenty men wounded. .The losses of the tribesmen are stated to have been considerable. There Is- a strong apprehension m Paris'' that the troops have met with a serious reverse. Admiral Philibert states that General Taupin's column was attacked m the defile of Berrebbah, .25 miles south-east of Fedalla-. Time after time the enemy charged the French column, and engaged them m a hand-to-hand combat. The French troops formed m squares, with. fix-, ed bayonets, seven times to repulse the onslaughts, m one of which the two officers and at letist five men foil. Three tribes-pthe Soualem, Chiedma, and the' Shatouka— took part m the lighting. They live m a very, difficult country, and their strength . is estimated at from 25,000 to 30,000. They are supporters of Mulai Hatid, the Pretender Sultan. ! • A telegram from Tangier states that the tribesmen have cut General d'Amade's lines of communication, and that .panic reigns at Casa Blanca m consequence, The Pretender is reported to have ordered a strong army to invest Rabat, which is occupied by his brother, the Sultan Abdul A/A'/..

A pathetic story is told m the French papers of Captain Boulhant. He fell m a, hand-to-hand combat against desperate odds. The captain was only recently married to the 18-year-old daughter of M. Barrilllier; a Paris municipal councillor. Two months ago he lost his father, and his sister was injured m a railway accident while returning from, the funeral. There are already loud murmurs at the failure of French policy m. Morpcco. , The young lieutenant, Eicard, who lost his life m last . Sunday's battle m Morocco, has been decapitated by the Moors, who have carried his head away with them. . -

•General d'Amade has sent messengers to say that he will hunt the tribes until the head, and that of a soldier who was killed at the same time, have teen found. The horses of the two men Were killed under them, but, standing back to back, and surrounded by/ the enemy, they fought until neither had a. cartridge left. Then they embraced, and the next moment they were seen to fall.