MOROCCO.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1334, 11 January 1912, Page 5

MOROCCO.

NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN. WHAT GERMANY MIGHT DO. By TolejraDh-Prees AcjDciation-CoDrriL'hl Paris, January 9. Negotiations between France and Spain over Morocco aro still beclouded. Franco requires that the Sultan should retain general sovereignty, including the Spanish zone. Spain appeals, to Franco under the Spanish Treaty of 1901 for freedom within her sphere of influence. Meanwhile many newspapers, fearing Germany might otherwise advance fresh claims in Africa, urgo a speedy ratification of the Moroccan Treaty, and also the effectivo occupation of the territory wherein Franco is entitled to exercise a protectorate. ! SPANISH BIGHTS. . The "Times" Paris correspondent, writing on November 22, states: — It is with regard to tho impending question of Spanish rights that the French Foreign Affairs Committee seems to have been left in the greatest darkness. This point is very clearly put in an able article signed bv M. Gaston Calmistte, the editor of tho • "Figaro." M. Cnlmette, although he displays excess!vo hostility to 31. Delcasse, traces with the utmost clearness the history of tho secret Franco-Spanish Treaty of 1901 and shows that it was concluded by tho express desire of Great Britain not only in tho interest of immemorial Spanish rights—which indeed it diminished as compared with the secret Franco-Spanish Treaty of 1902—but also for thu purpose of acknowledging and assuring vital British, interests in tho Mediterranean and the Straits of Gibraltar, mid on tho Atlantic coast of Morocco. M. Calmette nnotes the memorable declarations of the lato Lord Percy in tho House of Commons on, June 1, 1901, when the then Under-Secretarv for Foreign Affairs stated on behalf of the Government . they would never agroe to any convention with Franco regarding Morocco which did not take account of the incontestable rights of Spain in that country. This vital reserve was embodied in Article 8 of the Anglc-Prench Convention, and m Article 7 the two Governments agreed that there should be no fortification of the coast of Morocco from Mdilla right round to tho mouth of tho Sebu, excepting at the points already occupied by Spain. M. Calmette recalls the famous saying of Castelar. "Spain begins at the .Pyrenees and ends at the Atlas." Spam, by a series of agreements with Frnni , " concluded under British auspices, has abandoned n. great portion nf her traditional claims and ambitions, but the limit, in Mr. Calmitte's view, is reached when Spanish interests coincide with thoso of Great Britain. He concludes as follows:— ' "We, can obtain a strip of territory (couloir) for tho railway from Tangier. We may, perhaps, get at Alcazar a rectification of frontier; these aro concessions which Ambassadors and Ministers determined to maintain in all circumstances tho tw.st of relations between the two countries will discuss without the exercise of any pressure. But we shall never obtain Larache, the only Atlantic port (sic) • wo shall never get Tangier; and we are compelled to acquiesce becauso these Treaties were signed in our namo without our knowledge."