20 APRIL 1907, Page 2

It is reported from Morocco that the Sultan's Commissioner has

signed a contract with a German firm for the construction of public works, including a boulevard and a new system of drainage, at Tangier. On the face of it, it looks as though the German Legation and the Sultan had agreed to ignore Articles 106 and 107 of the Algeciras Protocol, which stipulate that such contracts can only be granted by adjudication. The German explanation appears to be that the arrangement was made directly between the Sultan and the German firm, and that the whole matter is therefore out- side the jurisdiction of the Protocol. If the facts and the explanation be as Wf) have stated, then we can only describe them as exceedingly unsatisfactory. Even Protocols have a spirit as well as a letter.