Status of Tangier

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 199, 8 August 1923, Page 5

Status of Tangier

AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE NEW PROPOSALS BY FRANCE. . London, Aug. 6. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Pahs correspondent expects the London conference between Britain, France and Spain respecting Tangier will be resumed on August 21, when the French will submit new proposals for an international regime, the British proposals having proved unacceptable. Very little has been published in London concerning these negotiations. —(A. and N.Z.)

The ghost of Pepys, if it still haunts the purlieus of Whitehall, will doubtless honour with its inquisitive presence the conference to be held in London for the purpose of settling the international status of Tangier. An entry in his diary of 1663 records that, in the opinion of the immortal Samuel (then secretary of the Commission sent by Charles 11. to report on the proposed abandonment of the new British possession), Tangier was “an ordinary place, overseen by the Moors. ’ ’ He adds, with a touch of frugality that sounds almost Geddesian, that he is “amazed to think how the King hath laid out all this money upon it;” and concludes, with intimitable Pepysian irrelevance, by complaining, “To-night (1) was infinitely bit with cinches!”

Ever since the British evacuation, in the year following that in which Pepys wrote, Tangier has been hindered in its development by the international jealousies of the European Powers involved in its chequered history. Before the Act of Algeciras and the establishment of the French Protectorate it was the place of residence of the foreign representatives accredited to the Shereefian Court, who were not allowed to pollute by their infidel presences the capital at Fez, the sacred city of Mulai Idrees, descendant of Fatima tho Prophet’s daughter. The longestablished imbroglio seems only to have been accentuated by the international agreement under which the “Sunset-land” was partitioned into a French Protectorate in the middle, south, and cast, a Spanish “sphere of influence ’ ’ in the north, and an ‘ ‘ international zone, ’ ’ comprising Tangier and its immediate hinterland. THE HARBOUR PROBLEM. No harbour has existed at Tangier since the departing British demolished the magnificent mole that they had built, and though, owing to the organising genius of the French, Casablanca has now displaced it as the principal port of Morocco, Tangier is the natural maritime outlet for Fez and the northern provinces. 'Ships have, however, still to load and discharge their cargoes from and into lighters in the open and tempestuous roadstead; and it is upon this very question of harbour-construc-tion that matters have now come to a head.

In June of last year the Sultan Mylai Yussef, still nominally ruler of the “Maghreb,” granted a concession for the construction of the port of Tangier to what is practically a French company. The representatives of the other Powers protested that the Sultan’s action was contrary to international agreements; but the Quai d’Orsay maintained that the Sultan, as Sovereign of Morocco, had an absolute right of making concessions of this character under proper guarantees for other foreign interests, and quoted as a precedent a previous concession to the Spanish Government for tho laying of the Arzila-Tangier cable. The Shercefian Government then concerned, and ference of the Powers concerned, and undertook to revise all concessions in harmony with its decision, and such a conference is now about to assemble in London to discuss tho wholo question of the future of the status of Tangier.

FRANCE, SPAIN AND BRITAIN. Tho situation, iu view of the present interhational position, is difficult . and delicate. France is recognised as the paramount Power in Morocco, though Marshal Lyautey, her Resident-General, as Foreign Minister and Secretary for War in the Maghzen, is in theory an officer of the Shereefian Government, which is, again in theory, the one Government iu Morocco, and his administration of the Protectorate has produced results, both economic and political, that are little short of marvellous. The position of Spain, with her historic interests iu the north, may be estimated by the fact that Spanish is the normal language for business purposes at Tangier; while Great Britain of whoso Empire in the seventeenth century the place formed part, possessed until recent years a predominant commercial interest in the country, and regards Tangier as of the first strategical importance in relation to Gibraltar and the command of the western entrance to the Mediterranean.

Though once the capital of a Roman province and now a cosmopolitan city but 13 miles from Europe, Tangier is yet more easter A than many cities of the Orient. Seen from the Atlantic in the blinding African sunlight, with her iridescent minarets and milk-white buildings terraced against the green hillside, her unemeasured beaches golden beneath the deep purpule sky, she presents the aspect of an enchanted town in some Arabesque romance. The effect is heightened by a walk through her narrow malodorous streets, teeming with silent slippered figures in white haiks and imperturbable anachronisms swathed in rich-ooloured robes and mounted on pacing mules or scarletsaddled Barbary horses.