East Again

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EAST AGAIN BY WALTER B. HARRIS OFFICER OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR, COMMANDER OF THE OUISSAM ALAOXJITE OF MOROCCO, OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF THE DRAGON OF ANNAM, OFFICER OF THE ROYAL ORDER OF CAMBODIA, MEMBER OF THE ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES COLONIALES PARIS Correspondent of The Titnes in Tangier from 1887 to 1933 FOREWORD BY SIR JAMES M. MACLEOD, K.BE., C.M.G. FOREWORD AMONG many joys which a revisit to Morocco recently AMONG many joys which a revisit to Morocco recently afforded me after an absence of sixteen years there were mixed some griefs, and none more painful, or unthink able, than the declining health which had just come to Walter Harris, I had known him for fortysix years, years which never seemed to have taken anything from his perennial gaiety but to have widened the range of his observation and added to the piquancy of his wit. His death, on 4th April last, is in fact the occasion of this Foreword to East Agaln his last book, which was completed just before his illness. As it is not about Morocco, where he was known and loved by high and humble, rich and poor, old and young, in short by just everybody, the Publishers have asked me to tell other readers, those in the countries of which the book treats or elsewhere to whom he may have been little if at all known, something about the author himself, his activities and his wonderful qualities, Walter was the second of four sons of the late Frederick W, Harris, of London, shipowner and highly respected member of the Society of Friends The fourth was Clement, a musician of brilli ant promise who died early and tragically in the GrecoTurkish War of 18 97. The first and third, the late Sir Frederick Leverton Harris and the present Sir Austen Harris, both rose to distinction at home, and such would doubtless have been Walters destiny also had not fate ruled for him success of another sort. He, however, after education at Harrow, still merely a boy and accompanied mostly by Clement, took to travel, For this his fathers many connections abroad afforded facilities. So, when, in 1897, Walter first appeared in Morocco, although only twentyone and looking, as he always did, far less than his age, he was already quite a fartravelled person. Of Morocco he became enamoured and Morocco of him, and not less abidingly either. Apparently, he discerned in its romantically backward conditions and in the absorbing uncertainties of its political future the possibilities of an independent and congenial career as a traveller, author and journalist He already knew French and soon acquired fluency in Spanish and, still more, in yVrabic. His first Morocco journey was with the British Mission, Sir William Kirby Greens, to the Moorish Court, then, in 1897, at Marrakesh. About this time he began to contribute articles to The Times. He used then, laughingly, to say that he would have to avoid ever appearing in person at that serious quarter lest his youthful mien should be his undoing. Soon afterwards, however, he became The Times regular correspondent in Morocco and so remained during his life.