MOROCCO INVOLVES POWERS FROM TANGIER TO BAGDAD
Germany Cancels Her Agreement with France Concerning the Western Bulwark
of Islam --- England Behind France, Berlin Aroused
By Stephen Bonsal. The Moroccan imbroglio is interesting from many points of view. Perhaps the most interesting is the belief held by so many foreign offices and editorial studies that all the bother and pother is really not about Morocco at all, but about the Balkans and the railway or Monsieur (Théophile)
Del Cassé's return to public life; for it is by such indirect ways as these, unknown to our so slightly held shirt-sleeve diplomacy, that European statesmen proceed upon that terrible business in which the lives of so many millions of people - mere food for powder - are involved.
It was only yesterday (July 8) that Maximillian Harden, the great Berlin editor, announced that Germany had renounced all political pretensions of Morocco and would content herself with the open door, and his pronouncement, which seemed to inaugurate and era of good feeling that would soon overpass the limited sphere of the Moroccan question, was received by all the Western powers with much enthusiasm. For it is not forgotten by them, if it is by us, who only took part in a platonic and academic way in the Algeciras Conference, that six years have barely elapsed since France and Germany, or rather the two great groups of powers respectively associated with them, were about to fly at each other's throats, seemingly for the sake of Morocco - that decrepit kingdom, the last Western and wasting fragment of the once great Mohammedan Empire.
However this laboriously-built-up quarrel which many think had no very deep roots in real national interests, was composed. At first here was the Algeciras Conference, and later the Franco-German agreement which, to the minds of some optimists, settled the vexatious matter for all time. Germany, it was understood as a result of the agreement, gave France a free hand in the military and political sense. She would acquiesce in any arrangement France saw fit to make with the unfortunate Sultans who had been succeeding one another on the throne of
Malai Edriss in such kaleidoscopic succession. She was apparently perfectly agreeable to any regime in Morocco so long as her commercial interests in the country - not very important at the moment, but of great potential value - were safeguarded.
Not three years have passed since this apparently happy arrangement was made, and the fat is in the fire again. German public opinion is, or seems to be, terribly excited because of the dispatch by the French of a flying column to Fez, where it is feared, at least in Paris, that the officers of her military mission in that last citadel of Islam are in danger of meeting the fate of Gordon at Khartoum; certain it is that the rebellious tribes are on the warpath, and the little Sultan is powerless to keep them in check. A large fraction of the German press is greatly vexed, and those papers that are supposed to be in closest touch with the German Foreign Minister do not hesitate to give the lie direct to French assurances. They assure that the French Embassador has been talked to very solemnly by Herr von Schoen; that the German Foreign Office is convinced, and has not hesitated to say so, that nothing worth protecting in Morocco is in danger; that there is no sign of anarchy - that is, not more than is usual in this trouble-ridden country; that no European lives are in jeopardy, and that the probable fate of Fez and its European colony, militarily as well as civil, should excite no misgivings.
The German press, divided on the other questions, is united in saying that the situation is one without danger, except from the fear of unconsidered action on the part of France. "France is not merely trying to pacify the country," say the wise editors, "but she is hoodwinking Europe while she seeks to 'Tunisize' it."
Even in the Prussian Chamber Deputies the Moroccan bogey has been trotted out again and Herman von Rath, who is described as having served many years in the German diplomatic service, announces amid great applause that the facts of the situation contradict the conciliatory words of the French Foreign Office. He announces that France has not respected either the letter or the spirit pf the Algeciras agreement, consequently, Germany is released from her obligations incurred under this treaty, and that a free hand is restored to her which should be actively used for the preservation of such German interests in the country as have not been destroyed by French control.
Herr Von Rath denounces the dispatch of the flying column of French calvary to Fez as merely a pretext for her scheme of military interpenetration of Morocco. He says the German policy should be somewa=hat as follows and while, of course, the policy represents only a deputy's point of view, it has been received with such popular favor that it may at any moment be taken up by the Government as its own. He does not believe that the rebellion in Morocco is dangerous, or that anarchy is near; but, if he is mistaken, he says let the rebellion be crushed and order restored by French troops. Then let us, we Germans, insist upon the Shereefian sway being restored independently of any single power, and that it then be supervised and influenced, so far as possible, by the totality of the States which are commercially interested there, France not being allowed to put forward any special claim. France, as well as other countries, has often pulled the chestnuts out of the fire. But probably never has this been done after such fair warning has been given that he of the burnt paw is not allowed to enjoy the savory nut!
The facts of the Moroccan crisis, in so far as they have to deal with the Moroccan situation and not with the Bagdad railway or with Monsieur Delcassé, are embodied in the Franco-German agreement, which was signed in 1909 by Von Schoen, representing Germany, and Jules Gambon, representing France. In this exchange of notes the Imperial German Government acknowledged explicitly France's special rights in Morocco, the exercise of which, of course, is only possible in the tranquil, and not in a disorderly Sultanate; and it was certainly understood that Germany would not seek to handicap France in any measures it might be found necessary to take for the preservation of her interests and those of the other powers concerned. From the agreement that was reached, it is clear that Germany admitted at this time she possessed only economic interests in Morocco, and that, consequently, France is bound only to bestow upon German commerce and industry the same rights and the same protection that are bestowed upon every other nation doing business in the country. This treaty of 1909 was certainly a far reaching concession on the part of Germany toward France, and, as was suspected at the time though never definitely known, France paid heavily for her free hand in Morocco by concessions in other quarters. In view of the agreement, it seemed certain that the Emperor of Germany had completely abandoned the nagging policy toward France in Morocco, which had been pursued for so many years anterior to the Algeciras agreement. The only problem that the Moroccan question seemed still to contain was weather the French policy of peaceful penetration would be crowned with success and Morocco become a Gallic dependency without passing through the preliminary stage of long-drawn-out guerrilla warfare on the Algerian frontier and in the Atlas fastnesses. This dream is now rudely dispelled. Germany interferes again in Morocco. She sends the Panther, that stormy petrel of Germany's overseas policy which has raise trouble in Hayti and in Venezuela, and now again appears at Agadir, Morocco's open roadstead on the Atlantic Coast which, however, gives access to the rich Moorish province of the Sus.
