The Capture of Raisouli

Since the Spanish have been experiencing the difficulties that we know about in northern Morocco, this country has been attracting public attention, not only because fierce fighting is taking place there between the Riffian troops and those of Alphonse XIII, but also because of the repercussions that these events may have on our own protectorate.
The latest twist in the drama that is being played out there is the capture of Raisouli by the horsemen of Abd-el-Krim.
Raisouli, whose name has acquired a certain celebrity for many years, is, in the independent Riff, a sort of great feudal lord, commanding a small army that is entirely devoted to him, living by coups de force, pressuring the tribes, collecting duties on caravans, finally capturing Europeans whom he then freed for a large ransom.
For a long time the Spanish government considered him an enemy. For a long time the rivalry between Raisouli and Abd-el-Krim, another feudal lord of the Riff, but much more loyal and more skillful, favored the establishment and extension in northern Morocco of the Spanish protectorate. But the policy inaugurated by the Directory of General Primo de Rivera changed all the directives. Suddenly, Raisouli was no longer regarded as an adversary, but as an ally. They negotiated with him. They provided him with money, weapons, ammunition. He pretended to use them against Abd-el-Krim. In reality, he continued to act on his own account and played his friends of the day as those of the day before. However, Abd-el-Krim did not remain inactive. While inflicting severe losses on the Spaniards, he meditated revenge on the old chief who had betrayed him. This is what happened. Raisouli is now a prisoner of the Riffains and the Djebale country, bordering the Atlantic, which depended on him and thus preserved, with regard to the Spanish troops, a sort of benevolent neutrality, this country becomes a new hostile zone. The era of difficulties is not yet closed for the Directory of Madrid.