THE AGITATION IN MOROCCO. T HIS week's news seems to render
an outbreak of the Morocco question, if not at once, at least within a measurable time, more than ever likely. We do not say this because of the fanatical riot at Fez. That is a small matter. Far more serious are items of news which have attracted much less attention. In the first place, Morocco has at last been thrown open to European trade, and to the unrestricted incursions of the European trader. At least, that is how we read the telegrams which announce that the Sultan has signed a treaty with the English Envoy allowing free commercial intercourse between England and Morocco. It is by no means likely that we have stipulated for special and peculiar privileges, and even if we have nominally acquired them, the Sultan could not resist the pressure that would be exerted by the other Powers in order to obtain " most-favoured-nation" treatment. This being so, the English commercial treaty lets Europe into the Sheriefan dominions. The importance of this becomes clear, the moment we realise what has been the attitude of Morocco hitherto towards foreign enter- prise. Practically, Morocco has been a hermit-Kingdom in which the hated infidel trader has been kept to one or two treaty ports. Take as an example the policy that has been in force up to a week ago in regard to the acquisition of land by Christians. Even in Tangier—a town which has only once been visited by a Sultan in sixty years, because it is con- taminated by the presence of so many Europeans—no Moor has been allowed to sell land to Christians, and the Sultan has done all in his power to buy back farms and gardens that have already been sold. He cannot, of course, prevent " protected" Europeans from selling to each other, for they are not amenable in such matters to the laws of Morocco ; but whenever possible, he outbids the intending Christian purchaser. To sell land to the Sultan is, indeed, looked upon as a very profitable form of business in Tangier. It has been the same with all attempts to develop the mineral and agricultural wealth of the country. The mountains are known to hold minerals which, if they were worked, would make the Sultan one of the richest of Eastern monarchs; but as yet he has steadily refused to grant any concessions, or to permit his subjects to do anything to further the schemes of the infidel. Even farming by Europeans is not allowed. Though the soil is of the kind that laughs with a harvest if you but tickle it with a hoe—the Moors scratch the surface, and get corn crops that stand man-high—no one has been allowed to do anything to improve the conditions of agriculture. To keep out the European as the Chinese keep him out, has been the object of the Sultan. It is true travellers are allowed to make excursions through the country. When, however, they have tried to settle down and develop a business outside the walls of Tangier and the sea-ports, they have met with a resistance that has been like that of a brick wall. Now, however, all that is to be changed. It is expressly stated in the telegrams that the Sultan has agreed that Europeans shall be allowed to purchase land in his dominions, and that the vexatious interference of the Moorish authorities with trade, both export and import, shall be withdrawn ; and we shall therefore be certain sooner or later to see attempts made to " develop " the interior of the Empire. But these attempts at development are sure to lead to disputes between the Moorish authorities and the Powers. Commercial enterprises carried on among a wild and fana- tical people, who feel not only hatred but genuine con- tempt for foreigners, can have but one end. No doubt for the first year or two things may go peacefully. Ultimately, however, some attempt at opening a mine in the foot-hills of the Atlas range, or some farming operations in the fat valleys that run down to the coast, will become the occasion for an outbreak of popular hatred which will call for European remonstrances. Either the Sultan will be forced into punishing a body of men whom the mass of his subjects applaud, or he will have to defy the aggrieved European State. In either case, complications are likely to arise, which may throw Morocco into a condition of disorder so acute, that a Con- ference and a partition will be the only possible solution. In these days, an essentially savage and retrograde State like Morocco—the Moors, though they use matches, have certainly gone back in civilisation since the times when they were observed by Mr. Pepys—can only "keep on end" by excluding Europeans. As soon as they are allowed to enter, and to contrast the civilised attitude with the barbarian, the whole system breaks up in anarchy. Civilisation cannot remain on equal terms with barbarism. It must either rule or be rooted out; and the process by which it is determined whether civilisation shall win or lose, is sure to be tumultuary. If the new treaty is confirmed and acted on, it is as certain as ,that France holds Tunis and that we hold India, that Morocco, before ten years are over, will be a Regency or a Protectorate, or in some other way ad- ministered by Europeans. The only alternative would be the development of the Japanese attitude towards Europe; but any one who has ever been in Morocco and seen the Moors, knows that this is absolutely out of the question. You will no more get the Moors to Europeanise themselves than the Arabs. It will be said, perhaps, that if this is so, and if the signing of the new English commercial treaty really means the beginning of the end, the Govern- ment have acted very wrongly in pressing their demands upon the Sultan. No doubt there is a good deal to be said for this contention, and no doubt, as a rule, " Let sleeping dogs lie " is the best of all diplomatic maxims. Still, in the present case, we doubt if any good would have been done by helping the Sultan to keep up the hermit attitude any longer. That was bound to end ; if we had not put a stop to it, some other Power would have done so. Do what you will, you cannot lock the doors of a country not four days' sail from Plymouth, and but three hours' from the free port of Gibraltar. If, then, we have inaugurated a policy which must sooner or later put an end to the status quo in Morocco, we may, at any rate, feel sure that the existing conditions could not have been much longer maintained.
How unstable is the existing condition of affairs, may be gathered from a piece of news published in the Echo of Wednesday. It appears that the course of the fighting in the Angera district—a district which lies east of Tangier, and includes the Apes Hill, the African Pillar of Hercules—has gone against the Sultan's troops, and that there is a serious risk of the rebels attack- ing Tangier. " I have received," says the correspondent of the Echo, " reliable information from the rebel forces that Hmam, regardless of consequences, is bent upon sur- prising Tangier, which he is determined to enter at the head of his troops. He purposes to raze Dris Amkishet's house to the ground, but vouches for the safety of all the European inhabitants. In the event, however, of his suc- ceeding in his object, encounters with the Europeans and plundering of their dwellings by his forces will be unavoid- able." If this happens—and if Hmam is really victorious, we do not see what is to stop him from surprising Tangier, certainly not the saluting battery on the old Portuguese fort—we shall soon be in the midst of a very grave series of complications. The sack of Tangier will mean the landing of marines to protect life and property, and we know what that may lead to. If we send troops, the Spanish and French will do the same, and we may have a triangular scramble " to restore order" in that strange international seaport, where there are villas and shops belonging to every race, and a Spanish population of four thousand. No doubt things in the East turn out very differently from what is expected, the rumours often bearing very little relation to the real facts. Still, it is clear that, even putting the possible future dangers aside, there is a good deal of cause for immediate anxiety. It would be a curious instance of the irony of fate if Mr. Gladstone and his col- leagues were, after all, obliged to give their first attention, not to Home-rule or "One man, one vote," but to the Empire of Morocco.
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