A MANDATE. FRANCE'S FOREIGN POLICY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1908, Page 7

A MANDATE. FRANCE'S FOREIGN POLICY.

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT.' INTERVENTION IN MOROCCO. By TeleKrtch.— Press Association.— OoDjrljrnl. PARIS, 28th January. In the Chamber of Deputies yesterday, M. Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, delivered a pronouncement on the Government's attitude regarding foreign affairs. In the course of his speech, which was warmly applauded, M. Pichon defined the joint policy pursued by France and Spain ,in accordance with the mandatories of the European Powers, to restore order in the coastal districts of Morocco, and to establish an efficient police force. France would maintain a prudent neutrality regarding Moroccan internal affairs. There would be no protectorate, and the Government would not accept a Morocco more internationalised than it was under the terms of the Algeciras treaty. "The Moroccan policy of France," the Minister proceeded to say, "is part of her general foroign policy. This is the work neither of a man nor of a Government, but, is the work of the Ropublic, which has regained the position to which she is entitled in the concert of Europe." M. Pichon eulogised the peaceful ententes and alliances that had been consummated with other Powers, and said that to link such a policy with the fate of a Minister would only weaken the scope of his work. "Ministers may fall," he declared, "but Prance remains "France. We have cleared up misunderstandings with Great Britain and Russia. Franco's policy ought not, and does not, appear to be directed against or intended to isolate anydne. "Our agreements, with Britain and Spain entitled us to act in Morocco 5 yet wo needed puthority to act. Then complications arose. Did they go so far as to mean a danger of war? I do not know ; but we — everybody here — consented to tho holding of a conference, and we attended it with a limited programme. We should have accepted no other, and that conference gave our rights a new basis."