But now the great man appeared on the scene—Rouvier, the real Regent of Tunis, who at one and the same time is Premier and Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Bey, and also Representative of France—that France which has made of the Bey, the kind, amiable Bey; a shadow king.
For him the drums beat and the guard presented arms. The sound must, I think, strike with a jarring note on the Bey’s ear.
Whilst M. Rouvier stood beside the Bey, I entered and thanked him for the great assistance His Highness’s subjects had afforded me. I named especially the Khalifas of Gabés and Hadeij, and gave a cursory account of my journey in the south. General Valenci translated sentence by sentence. The Bey replied, put questions, and expressed his pleasure at my having been so well pleased. He shook me warmly by the hand, the poor old shadow prince with the white beard and kindly eyes, who is led out now like a chained animal on his reception days.
Officially speaking, the Bey reigns over his subjects without interference, but, in fact, he is bound to be guided by his Minister’s will.
The Commander-in-Chief in Tunisia, a Brigadier-General, is at the same time the Bey’s Minister for War; thus all the political posts are filled by Frenchmen. The Bey has Civil Governors in his provinces, under whom are Khalifas, and under them again Sheikhs. General Allegro at Gabés was one of the first of these. These Governors exercise supreme power in the Bey’s name, but they are watched by the “contrôleurs civil” and the Intelligence Department, so that in reality the administration is managed in accordance with the will of the French, and the Governors are freed from responsibility in the conduct of affairs.
But now peace and quiet reign over nearly the whole country; the plundering and fighting which formerly laid the land waste has ceased, arms are put aside, and trade flourishes, roads have been improved and extended, and colonists arrive.
Before the French occupation, the tribes in Tunisia were divided into two parties (“Sof”), of which the adherents changed according to circumstances. One of these parties termed itself the Bey’s, but only with the intent of being able to plunder and rob the other with impunity.
At the head of what were known as the independent tribes were, as a rule, the Beni Zid, in the neighbourhood of the oasis of El Hamma, who pretend to be the descendants of a French renegade. The French traveller Pellissier, in his time, was well received by them on that score, and they called him cousin. Some years ago the Beni Zid seized the Kasba at Sfax by a coup de main.
Again it was these independent tribes who offered armed resistance to the French, though certainly not always in great force or with much success. After the conquest of the country, some thirty thousand of them emigrated across the frontier into Tripoli, whence they have now mostly returned.
We have seen that the tribe of Urghamma, on the Tripolitan frontier, adhered ostensibly to the Bey, but only that under cover of his name they might commit the worst excesses.