The Sun. — 1870-01-25 (London, England)

THE RUPTURE BETWEEN 11ALY AND  MOROCCO.  The Gibraltar Chronicle of the 15th inst. has the following on this subject :—" Further particulars respecting the Ducaly affair in Tangier have reached us, which, as they come from a thoroughly reliable and impartial source, and supplement what has already appeared in the Chronicle on the subject, may not be uninteresting. First of all, the charge made against Ducaly is so shrouded in mystery that nothing would be more satisfactory than that the man should be put on his trial, but it must be remembered that this charge has nothing to do with the present difficulty in the phase which it has now assumed, though it undoubtedly led up to it. Mustafa Ducaly was a Moorish merchant who pursued his business with great success in Gibraltar, stood .S 0 we'll with the Emperor Muley Abderrahman that certain privileges, especially large credits at the Custom-house, were granted to him, and finally retired to Tangier, where he appears to have been much respected. His brother limed, who was in his employ, whether as a partner or not is not known, succeeded to the management of the firm at the death of Mustafa, in 1859, conj dntly with the latter's son, Mahomed, and some time after this the firm had a dispute with Senor Merry, the Spanish Minister, which resulted in their lodging a personal complaint at Madrid. Mohamed Ducaly, who was once an Italian subject, but ceased to be so in the time of Signor Scovasso's predecessor, Count Castellinard, when on a visit to Fez was suddenly thrown into prison by the Emperor on account of the non-payment of a large sum of money due from the firm to the Government, a dithculty from which he was extricated only on condition that neither he nor his uncle would put themselves under foreign protection. Notwithstanding this they applied to Signor Sco vasso to renew their privileges as Italian subjects, which he declined to do, at the same time-advised Mohamed Ducaly to go to Florence and try what the Government there would do for him. We come now to the murder of the Spaniard near Ceuta ; the first man suspected was a. Moor named Benhaka, a foreman over Ducaly's grounds in Algera, between whom and the Governor of that place a strong mutual hatred existed, and whether Benhaka committed the murder to bring the Governor into trouble, or whether he was charged with the crime out of spite, remains to be discovered, as also do the grounds which Senor Merry ha I for implicating Ducaly in the affair. Be it how it may Ducaly was arrested, and then the present dispute between the Moorish and Italian Ministers commenced, and the conflict of opinions begins. Signor Scovasso, having received instructions from his Government by telegram, informed Sidi Bargash,theMorocco Minister of Foreign Affairs, that if the intention of the Moorish Government was to confiscate Ducaly's estate on his arrest, they must bear in mind that he was under Italian protection ; in answer to this warning, the partisans of Morocco say that Sidi Bargash replied that he did not consider that either of the firm had any right to be treated as Italian subjects, basing his opinion on a despatch to that effect from Count Castellinard; the other side say that a distinct promise was made to Signor Scovasso that neither of the Dulcays should be removed from Tangier. Then followed what has already been published; the removal of Ducaly when Signor Scovasso was absent, and the stoppage and return of the escort with the prisoner to Tangier, and here the Spanish Minister steps in to threaten that if Ducaly was not sent to the Emperor he would break off all relations with the Moorish Government. Sidi Bargash, in this dilemma, leaned to the Spanish side of the question, and Ducaly was sent away. Diplomatic relations were then broken off between Italy and Morocco, and so the matter stands at present. The whole question seems to turn upon whether Mohamed Ducaly was or was not an Italian subject; but, at the same time, there is no doubt that the non-payment of their debts to the Moorish Government by the Ducalys, of which it is but just to say that Mohamed Ducaly entirely disapproves, induced the Emperor to act in the first instance as arbitrarily as he did."