MOROCCO.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 127, 21 July 1911, Page 5

MOROCCO.

GERMANY’S BLUFF. BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S ACTION By Electric Telegraph—Copyright . United Press Association. London, July 20. Cabinet to-morrow will consider the German demands in connection with Morocco. These amount to complete cession by France of the coast and interior of' the IJrench Congo as far as tho Sanga river; also Franco’s contingent reversion of tho Congo State under the suggested arrangement, which * would add another 200,000 to the existing 200,000 square miles in the German Camcroons, while Franco would retain tho hinterland of the French Congo. Communication thence to the Atlantic would be exclusively through German or Belgian territory. FEELING IN FRANCE. London, July 20. The’ Times Paris correspondent states that although it is not alleged that there is any contravention of the Algeciras Treaty or tho agreement of February, 1909, Germany is demanding impossible compensation, which German statesmen are aware it is not conceivable the French Government coiild for a moment entertain; tho socalled compensations for withdrawing the warship from Agadir without relinquishment of any valuable economic right secured by Germany in Morocco in 1909, nor is there any word that Germany guarantees bettor fulfilment of its ’promise of 1909 hot to impede France’s acknowledged political interest in Morocco.

Opinion is spreading that Germany desires France, as a last resort, to whittle the settlement to Mulai Hafid’s ceding Agadir and other territory to Germany. This would satisfy Pan German ambitions and, by directly compromising British interest, greatly strain the Anglo-French • entente.

Le Temps declares that if the negotiations lead to a deadlock, France’s only course is an appeal to the signatories of the Algeciras Treaty. ' SENDING OF BRITISH WARSHIPS URGED. London, July 20. The Times regards the German demands as audacious bluff, and possibly pot without its electioneering aspects. But the paper also believes that Germany has not yet shown her hand, and adds that possibly the ending of one or two British ships to Agadir might hasten developments. t ' A DELICATE SITUATION. : London, July 26 Owing to the veto crisis, and perhaps more especially to the sudden and delicate situation between Franco and Germany regarding Morocco, Mr Asqmtfi’s intended visit to Edinburgh next Monday is postponed. V” ’ Paris, July 19. ,The Spanish Ambassador intenlowed M. Selves, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, and promised that if the Spanish agents confirm tho circumstances already reported of the French Consul’s arrest at Alcazar, Spain would admit it was unfair, express regret, and make the necessary reparation. (Received 21, 8,5 a.m.) Paris, July 20. Spain has fully apologised for tho tieatraent of M Boisset. Berlin, July 20. v Tlie sending of another warship to M ovoccau waters is semi-officially foreshadowed.

""Morocco occupies the whole of the north-west corner of Africa, with coast-linos on both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Its southern boundary is the groat. Sahara Desert, but on the east its frontier marches with that of Algeria, France’s chief colony in Africa. The most orderly and settled parts of the country are the coastal strips, where nearly all the towns of commercial importapee are situated, though both the new capital (Fez) and the old capital' (Mikasua, Mekinez) are well inkind. That, in fact, is why these two cities are so frequently disturbed

by; rebel tribesmen. The untamed tribesmen, who have Maintained their wild independence all down the ages, dwell, for the most pai‘t, in the interior highlands, whence they sweep down, after the usual fashion of half-savage hillsmen, upon the comparatively rich and defenceless towns of the seacoast and the valleys. Under the Act of Algeciras, France and Spain were, in effect, given by the Powers a mandate to protect European interests in the . coast towns and their neighbourhood. Spain holds Melilla, in the north, as a sort of penal colony, and it was with the Riff tribesmen near by that she waged the war which led to flie. last serious Barcelona riots. She and France were given control of a force of native armed police for the preservation of order in the eight principal ports. At two of the northern ports Spain

was to have- sole control; at Tangier and Casablanca there was to be joint control; and at Rabat and the reiriaining ports the police were to be officered by the French. There was in all this a kind of dim recognition of’ Trench and Spanish spheres of influence. Of late the Germans have been making efforts to gain a sure footing, at least from the trade standpoint, in the south-western corner of the country—a district, practically outside both French and Spanish police spheres. The inlet to this field of German operations is through the port of Agadir, which is to the south of Casablanca, on the Atlantic coast. It is at that port that the German naval demonstration is being made. In the hinterland j?f that port He the Mannesmann concessions, to which recent cable messages have referred. It

was from Casablanca and Rabat that tho French troops lately marched to Fez when the rebels against. Sultan Mulai Hafid wore making that city an impossible place for foreign residents.

Tho move then made by the French was the immediate cause of, or at any rate the pretext for, Germany’s attempt, by a naval demonstration, to throw the Algeciras agreement into tho international melting-pot.