Moroccan Crisis Deepens

July 3, 1911: On this date, the German gunboat SMS Panther reaches Agadir. There is fear that Germany may use this port to establish an Atlantic base.

From the New York Times dated July 3:
"Having shown her hand in sending the gunboat Panther to Agadir, Morocco, Germany is awaiting the action of France, which, it is expected, will be taken only after consultations with Great Britain and Russia.
It is hoped here that the step taken by the German Foreign Office will lead to a general discussion of the Moroccan situation by the four principally interested powers, through which discussion the question will be definitely settled. Otherwise the Germans will remain in Morocco until the Franco-Spanish expeditions have been withdrawn. A general European conference is not expected.
France thus far has confined her comment as an expression of "disagreeable surprise" over the dispatch of the Panther."

In the English House of Commons, prime minister Herbert Henry Asquith when asked by Lord John Lyttelton, who will fight in Gallipoli, responds:

Mr. LYTTELTON

May I ask the Prime Minister whether there is any information which he can usefully give to the House with regard to the reported action of Germany in Morocco?

  Mr. ASQUITH

Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will kindly postpone the question until to-morrow.

The response is consistent with the prime minister's outlook on foreign and war time affairs.