ABSTRACT
Walter Burton Harris was born in London in 1866, the son of a shipping and insurance broker, and was educated at Harrow and at Cambridge University. During an influenza and pneumonia epidemic in Tangier in 1918 he served among its afflicted with a French physician. Harris travelled extensively in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. He was also a social climber who courted royalty and prominent politicians. Under Harris's critical gaze they struggled to administer Spain's northern zone, and to increase its share of Moroccan trade. Harris's role was multi-faceted. He was an irritant in international relations in Morocco, not least because of his admiration for French accomplishments after 1912 and his equal contempt for Spanish administration. His extensive contacts in European society and the press, and the still unsettled issue of Tangier, meant that his outspokenness could British relations with France and Spain. His ability to do depended on his knowledge of Morocco and its people.
