Chapter XXII: The Early Days of the Protectorate

My next three chapters treat of contemporaneous events which happened within a short time of the conclusion of the Kasr-es-Said Treaty in different parts of the Regency. While M. Roustan was endeavouring to turn his new position to the best advantage, the Bey, as might be expected, spared no effort to conceal the nakedness of the land from his outraged subjects. In the first place, a Tunisian version of General Bréart’s interviews with Muhamed es Sadek duly appeared in the Government Gazette. This extraordinary document contrasts strangely with the patriotic utterances of three days before.

NOTICE.

_Praise be to God._

The Raïd (Gazette) informs the public that yesterday (Saturday) His Highness the Bey had a satisfactory interview with General Bréart, the Commander-in-Chief of the French army which happens to be in the neighbourhood of the capital. This meeting took place in the presence of the Chargé d’Affaires and Consul-General of the benevolent French Government. Its object was solely to prove the friendly relations which exist between the two countries. His Highness suggested to the General the prudence of abstaining from a visit to the metropolis, on account of the excitement it might produce, and also requested him to go away with all his troops. The General acceded to the demand, and assured His Highness that he and his soldiers would depart by the same route as they had arrived by, in order to reassure the inhabitants and secure public tranquillity.

We hasten to give publicity to this news.

TUNIS, _17th Djoumada et Thani_ 1298 (_15th May_ 1881).

Unfortunately for the Bey the Raïd was powerless to deceive anybody.

Tunis now assumed, as far as the European quarters were concerned, an appearance of unwonted gaiety. A score of newspaper correspondents at least arrived from the interior, to seek a respite from the official gag and the hardships of camp life; officers in mufti thronged the streets, and the legendary French colony, with its cohort of Israelites, Mozabites, and Algerians, prepared to do honour to the conquerors. M. Roustan did not permit the Raïd alone to enjoy the prerogative of issuing notifications. The ink was hardly dry on the treaty before the following circular was composed:—

NOTICE.

I have the honour to inform you that General Bréart, Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Republic and Commander-in-chief of the French troops, will be happy to receive the nation on Sunday the 15th May at half-past ten o’clock.

(Signed) TH. ROUSTAN.

What took place on that eventful occasion cannot be better described than in the words of the telegram sent to the _Standard_ by Mrs. Taylor, the witty and talented correspondent of that paper:—

Generals Bréart and Maurand came by train from Manouba. They proceeded on foot from the station to the French Consulate, escorted by Tunisian soldiers.

M. Roustan received them in the uniform of his new rank, which he had already prepared, in anticipation of his elevation as French Minister.

M. Valensi, who acted as spokesman of the deputation of French inhabitants, said in the course of his address that he did not know whether most to admire the valour of the French troops during the campaign, or the admirable diplomacy of the French Minister, by which the present situation had been brought about.

The correspondent of the _Temps_, speaking in the name of the Press, regretted that, after the privations and toils undergone by the French troops, they should not be permitted to march through the capital.

M. Roustan replied that the magnanimity displayed by the French upon this occasion marked a new era in their relations with Tunis. France would develop the resources of the country, securing her preponderance, and enabling her agents to rival those of friendly nations.

In the afternoon a grand review was held at Manouba in the presence of the generals, M. Roustan, the Musallis, and a crowd of Maltese and Italians.

These passing gaieties were not allowed to postpone for any length of time the more serious business connected with French “protection.” Ali Bey came back to Tunis and refused to give a written promise to adhere to the terms of his brother’s convention, which the Sultan now declared by telegraph to be null and void. This refractoriness was not destined to be of long duration; the stoppage of his income soon convinced Ali Bey of the practical inconveniences of patriotism; he signed the declaration required of him, burned his ships by tearing up General Logerot’s note which he had kept as an emblem of Gallophobism, and became from that day the devoted friend and ally of France. In the course of the 16th and 17th May, M. Roustan discovered in the heart of Tunis a conspiracy which threatened alike the Bey and the Protectorate. Of course all details and evidence were superfluous, and so M. Roustan confined his action to presenting the now docile Muhamed es Sadek with a list of the proscribed traitors. By a mere coincidence it contained the names of all those persons who had been unfavourable to M. Roustan’s views during the acute stage of Tunisian politics. Arbi Zerouck, the President of the municipality, managed to escape in the middle of the night to the British Consulate-General; M. Conti was dismissed for his over-zeal in promoting fruitless appeals, and the rest of the supposed culprits avoided the same fate by “making friends with the mammon of unrighteousness,” and conciliating the presiding genius of the new _régime_. El Arby was fortunate enough to obtain permission, through Mr. Reade’s intercession two days later, to put the Mediterranean between himself and his persecutors. The patronage now at M. Roustan’s disposal was judiciously bestowed; General Elias Musalli succeeded M. Conti with the exalted rank of a Tunisian _Ferík_ or General of Division, and Sy Hsuna Meteli, the Bey’s buffoon, became President of the Tunisian municipality. A year has passed since then: Sy Hsuna has now the best carriage and finest pair of horses in Tunis, but the streets of the town have become an impassable quagmire.

The French troops now occupied successively Mater and Beja, but signs were not wanting of rocks ahead. The Bey’s circular announcing the “re- establishment of friendly relations with France” was received with derision all over the interior. When the injunction “to receive the French like brothers” was proclaimed at the Enfida, the Arabs declared they “would have nothing to do with the slayers of the Sheikhia,” and the few remaining employés of the _Société Marseillaise_ took refuge in Tunis under an escort of Mr. Levy’s tenants. About the same time England met the just reward of her credulity. On the 19th and 23d May the Maltese ships “Nuova Stella” and “Santa Maria” were boarded and searched by the Commander of the French gunboat “Léopard” off the Tunisian coast.

A week later another evidence of the still smouldering flame of Arab discontent was afforded by the murder of M. Seguin, the correspondent of the _Télégraphe_ at Beja. On the 28th May, M. Seguin was walking a short distance outside the town when he was suddenly set upon by an Arab fanatic, who, quitting a group of natives on the road, rushed upon him and felled him to the ground with a heavy stone. Seguin, who was a small, thin man, attempted to defend himself with a dagger which he drew, but his assailant snatched it from his hand and inflicted no less than eight fearful wounds about his head, chest, and stomach before he could be dragged from the body of his victim. Seguin bore his sufferings with much courage, and died in great agony at six o’clock the next morning. His assassin was a deserter from the 2d Regiment of Algerian Native Infantry—commonly called Turcos—and is said to be a native of Morocco. I afterwards learned that M. Seguin was not more than thirty- two years of age, and was a brilliant scholar; he had been a pupil of the Ecole Normale, and his career might have been a very successful one but for the extreme violence of his political sympathies and antipathies. He joined the Commune heart and soul, and acted as Private Secretary to Rossel during his occupancy of the War Office. M. Seguin contrived to escape, or he would most probably have met with the fate of his chief. As it was, he left his country until the amnesty, earning his living by giving lessons. About a year before his death he published a very remarkable book describing the military forces of the various European Powers, and estimating the probable results of the next trial of strength between France and Germany. The title of the work is “La Prochaine Guerre.” But the next war was in Tunis, and M. Seguin himself was one of its earliest victims.

Ten days afterwards a crowd assembled outside the gate of Beja to see the murderer die. As he was marching to the place of execution, he was heard to exclaim, “I have done my duty; I have killed a Christian. The Prophet and forty Houris are waiting for me in Paradise.” His eyes were bandaged, he was made to kneel, and died apparently without a pang. It is significant that whilst he was being executed, an Imam, or Moslem priest, stood forth from a neighbouring minaret, and called all faithful Moslems to prayers. A large crowd of natives witnessed the execution, but no show of feeling was perceptible.

The end of the limited monarchy constituted in favour of M. Roustan by the Kasr-es-Said Treaty was now at hand. Nothing short of absolute power could satisfy his ambition; the Pro-Bey of Tunis must be _aut Cæsar aut nullus_. This position could only be attained by the French Minister Resident becoming Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs with General Elias Musalli as permanent under-secretary. On the 8th June M. Roustan announced the realisation of this measure to his former colleagues in an imperial circular:—

TUNIS, _June 8th_, 1881.

SIR,—I have the honour to inform you that I have just transmitted to the Bey of Tunis the Act of Ratification of the Treaty of Guarantees concluded on the 12th of last May between the Government of the French Republic and that of the Regency, a copy of which is enclosed. Article 5 of that treaty stipulating that the French Government shall be represented at Tunis by a Resident Minister, the President of the Republic has been pleased to confer upon me that function in virtue of the Commission, a copy of which I also transmit. On his side the Bey, in order to ensure, in so far as he is concerned, the execution of the Treaty of Guarantees, has delegated by a decree (the translation of which you will find enclosed) the Resident Minister of the French Republic as his sole representative in his relations with the agents of the foreign Powers at Tunis. In bringing these various documents to your knowledge I am anxious to assure you of my earnest desire to maintain, in the _double functions_ which I am invested, the good relations existing between the two Governments, and between them and that of the Bey, and I hope I may count on your part on the reciprocity of these sentiments.—I am, &c.,

ROUSTAN, _Resident Minister of the French Republic_.

As a matter of course M. Roustan’s first act in his new capacity was to promulgate the Bey’s decree upon the subject:—

Whereas the execution of Articles 4, 5, and 6 of the Treaty of Guarantees concluded between the Regency and the Government of the French Republic necessitates the constant intervention of the Resident Minister of the Republic in the relations between our Minister for Foreign Affairs and the agents of the Powers at Tunis, and whereas, desiring to avoid the complications which might result from this state of things, we delegate, for the prompt despatch of business, the Resident Minister of the French Republic as our sole official intermediary in the relations with the representatives of the Foreign Powers accredited to our person. We invite the said Resident Minister to communicate the present decree officially in our name to the Government of the Republic and to the agents of the Foreign Powers at Tunis.—Signed on the 11th Redjeb 1298 (8th June 1881). Countersigned, MUSTAPHA, _Minister of the Bey_.

One only of the foreign representatives hastened to offer immediate compliance with the terms of this almost insolent _pronunciamento_. The Chevalier Charles Tulin de la Tunisie at once tendered to M. Roustan the congratulations and adhesion of Germany. Such unexpected condescension was, however, looked on a little suspiciously both at Tunis and in Paris. During the crisis at Tunis M. Tulin certainly did his best to efface from the memory of Frenchmen his very different conduct during the dark days of 1870. In his youth M. Tulin had written an erudite work to prove that Tunisian consuls were really miniature ambassadors; later in life he had been ready to call before a court of law some luckless individual who had dared to assume the name _De Tunis_ in disparagement of his own high sounding title of _De la Tunisie_ (the unfortunate Bey being the fountain of honour in both cases,) and he finished his career by becoming the _alter ego_ of M. Roustan. M. Tulin, bristling with decorations, learned in etiquette, and deeply versed in the _Almanach de Gotha_, was an excellent type of the old school of Tunisian diplomatists. Not wishing to change his peculiar patronymic from De la Tunisie to Du Protectorat, he left Tunis as soon as he had done homage to M. Roustan and has never returned there.

Mustapha was now seized with an uncontrollable desire to see face to face the new allies and masters of Tunis. The Pro-Bey granted the required permission; some _ahads_ and _nicháns_ were prepared as fast as the Tunisian jewellers could make them, autograph letters containing complimentary nothings were written, and a French man-of-war was placed at his disposal. M. Roustan nominated his suite, General Elias Musalli, Dr. Mascaro, and the broker Volterra, now Master of the Tunisian Mint. The whole party assembled at the Goletta, in the wooden pavilion on piles built out into the sea, commonly called the Summer Palace, to take leave of the Bey. At the supreme moment Muhamed es Sadek placed around the neck of M. Roustan the same decoration as had up to that time been reserved only for princes and potentates. The act was logical enough: M. Roustan had become the sovereign of the nearly broken-hearted old man. Later in the day the “Jeanne d’Arc,” with its precious freight of Tunisian worthies, left for Marseilles. Nobody has appreciated the humour of the situation more keenly than M. De Blowitz, who had been for many days undergoing _malgré lui_, a gradual process of disenchantment, concerning Tunis. “The proper aim of the agents of a country,” he wrote a day or two later, “is to serve it with all their might, and have in view, as their recompense, only the honour of having served it. But in truth, if M. Roustan has substituted himself too ostentatiously for his Government, the Bey offers the more curious spectacle of a man who surpasses in self-abasement anything the East has as yet yielded of the kind. The delivery of the riband to M. Roustan is one of those sickening comedies which are only played in the extreme east and on the confines of civilisation. The journey of Mustapha, who is in a hurry to prostrate himself before his conquerors, the enthusiastic declarations of the Bey, and the lofty attitude of M. Roustan, certainly form one of those unsavoury scenes which should be preserved in history as a warning.”

Five weeks before, Mustapha was described in nine-tenths of the French papers not only as an arch-enemy and an Italian emissary, but as a criminal of the deepest dye. The Kasr-es-Said Convention intervenes, and this same Mustapha now arrives in France. It is here that we must look for the _dénouement_ of this unsurpassed comedy of political folly. The correspondent of the _Daily News_ has immortalised the scene in his telegram of the 15th June 1881:—

Mustapha Pacha and his suite arrived at Toulon at seven o’clock this morning, in the “Jeanne d’Arc.” The Bey’s Premier was saluted by fifteen guns. He visited the squadron in the harbour, and breakfasted on board the “Colbert.” Then he returned to the “Jeanne d’Arc,” and was rowed on shore in the admiral’s boat. The Sub-Prefect received him. Mustapha Pacha was dressed in a black coat, with the fez. He wore the Grand Cordon of Nichán, the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and the cordon of the same decoration which has just been conferred on M. Roustan. He left Toulon this evening for Marseilles, Lyons, and Paris. Apartments are engaged for him at the Grand Hotel, where he stays ten days. It is rumoured that he will visit London _incognito_, then return to Paris for a week, and go back to Tunis by way of Bordeaux, Madrid, and Algiers.

I must leave Mustapha to distribute his _nicháns_ and _ahads_ with General Musalli’s assistance at the Grand Hotel, and return to the serious side of the war in Tunis.