It is agreed in Paris and Berlin that the conversations
about Morocco have again taken an unfavourable turn. This may mean merely that pessimism has succeeded optimism for no more definite reason than that a change of temperature was due in the cycle of fluctuations which mark all unduly pro- tracted negotiations. Protracted negotiations are themselves a serious danger, as Mr. Asquith pointed out in his important statement on the Agadir incident. The German Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary, and the German Ambassador at Con- stantinople have all gone to Wilhelmshohe, and are taking counsel with the Emperor. A number of statements mean- while have appeared in the German Press. According to these Togoland is no longer mentioned in the conversations, and Germany has begun again to insist on her interests in Southern Morocco after having temporarily abandoned this line of argument. One very remarkable statement is that Germany could not consent to another conference unless French troops were withdrawn from Morocco. How far such articles are inspired we do not know, but in any case they prove that the conversations have made no progress, and that the situation is almost exactly as it was a month ago. The German Government are unhappily afraid of thePan-Germans, whose hopes they have inflamed.
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