New Britain herald., 1919-08-05
RAISULI OUTBREAK
 RECALLS PAST EVENT
Capture Of American and Roose-
 Velt's Famous Message


 troops through Tangier to check, re- 1 calls a famous episode during the administration of President Roosevelt, 1 and story of how a veteran Wash 1 ington newspaperman helped make | history,' says a bulletin from the l, National Geographic society.
 Tt was in 1904, following his cap- ture of an English correspondent for whose ransom the Sultan of Morocco had to pay S10,000 that the irrepres- sible bandit went after bigger game and kidnapped a wealthy American, Ion Perdicaris, and his son, Crom- well Varley
 When Raisuli paid no attention to the demand of the United States government for the release of the two men, President Roosevelt prompt ly dispatched fleet of American war ships to Morocco, and sent the famous ultim atum to the sultan, 'Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.'
 Tt was in connection with the framing of that ultimatum that a trusted correspondent of the Associat- ed Press is concerned, according to classic story among the Washing ton newspaper men. Being entrusted with preparing a message for Presi- dent Roosevelt to sign, MT. Hay, then secretary of state, did so and, as many a public official has done sub- mitted it to his friend, the newspaper man, for his opinion.
 Well, it may be diplomatic but the sultan never will get you in the midst of all those words,' was, in eff feet, the newspaper mans verdict Then flashed the bright idea, Why 1 not say what you mean, and no more, MT. Secretary, 'Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.
 ! The secretary agreed. President Roosevelt approved. And so it hap pened that the sultan so far got this | succinct American demand, that he l abandoned the usual oriental indi- 1 rection, and the result, while helpful l to the victims, was exceedingly hard on the sultan. For to deliver the two Americans Raisuli had to be appeased 1 with payment of about five times the | ransom he demanded for the Lon 1 don correspondent, with appoint i ment of himself as governor of cer- l tain areas about Tangier, and re- 1 lease of his bandit friends and i'm l prisonment of some of his enemies" | The bulletin then quotes from MT. Perdicaris' own story of his capture, | as related in communication sent 10 The National Geographic society l by him shortly after his release. MT. l Perdicaris wrote, in part:
 Tn 1894 Umlai El Hassan died l This sultan was perhaps the ablest | ruler Morocco ever enjoyed His young son, Abd Fl Aziz, nominally | succeeded to the throne upon his fathers death, but did not assume the reins of power until the decease, in ~f ,r.1 Ben Mousa. A year or two later an adVenturer known as Gila1i El Zarh- mni, an alleged elder brother of 1 Abd Fl AZiz, and many of the Ber- bers in the neighborhood of Fez ral- lied around this pretender and even l threatened Fez itself For short l time the sultan's troops were so l aroused that many of them deserted l with their arms to the enemy, and the sultan himself barely escaped cap | ture.
 The weakening of the sultan's hold | upon power was followed by d marked alteration in the attitude of the natives toward reigners-Euro- peans or Americans.
 II was at the time president of an international commission charged with the administration of the town of Tangier; nor did l imagine that l myself would be exposed to any inn mediate danger, much less that I should be carried off as a hostage by the Berbers, that the SquadrOns of our navy and the orders of my re- ] lease in Washington would become factors in the immemorial struggle between the Berbers of El Moghereb and the sultan of Fez and Morocco
 We had moved up two days be- fore this startling event to Aidonia | our summer residence, on the Spar 1 tello headland about miles from Tangier The house which we had l here erected is an unpretentiOuS will Ia overlooking the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar and surrounded by grounds some 300 acres In extent embraci many varied features ot woodland and of precipitous rock.
 "One evening we had gathered ir the drawing room directly after din ner, when we were startled by loud 1 screams from the servants quarters 1 Followed by my StepSOn, Cromwell l VarIev, whose wife and two daugh. ters, just home from school at Gen eva, completed, with Mrs. Perdcaris our family circle, I rushed down passage leading to the servants hall where I came upon a crowd of arm eC
 natives.
 "Even then we did not realize Ou
 danger but thought these intruder
 might be a party from a neighborinG | village. Our night guards were sup | piled from this hamlet, and we sup , l posed that they, like ourselves, hat
 rushed in to learn the cause of thu l uproar
 AS I turned to inquire of thes
 natives who crowded about me as t'
 what had occurred I saw some o
 our European servants already bound