A German White-book has been published this week in reply
to the allegations contained in the French Yellow-book on Morocco. In the main, as the French Press has pointed out, it is a collection of newspaper cuttings, and the evidence adduced to prove the French claim to a European mandate, and to disprove the correctness of France's dealings in the matter of the Anglo-French Agreement, is not very convincing. As to the first point, the only proof is an unsupported declara- tion of the Sultan to Herr Vassel, the German Consul at Fez, which, as we have pointed out elsewhere, can hardly be set against the denial of the French Minister. But a despatch of Prince Billow makes it clear that Germany herself claimed a European mandate:—" We are acting under the consciousness that our interests are identical with the commercial interests of all the non-French treaty Powers." Of the other points in the White-book, the most important is a declaration of Prince Billow last June that, while Germany would grant to France the organisation of the police on the Algerian frontier, she would demand that the police in other districts of Morocco,
and especially on the Atlantic seaboard, should be put under the joint control of the Powers. This is likely to be the main question at issue in the Conference, and on it depends the reality of the authority which France asks for. We trust that the more reasonable attitude which Germany seems to be taking up, and the strong support of France by the other signatories, will lead to a final settlement of the difficulty on an equitable footing.
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