The Colonial party in France have published their pro- gramme,
which includes a definite basis of agreement between France and Great Britain as regards their relative position in North Africa. Substantially the agreement amounts to this: that France should resign all claims in Egypt, and secure to this country a free hand in the disposal of Egyptian revenues, on condition that she herself should be invested with a pro- tectorate of all Morocco except the Mediterranean coast. This coast, with Tangier as its capital, should be formed into a neutralised State with, apparently, a Prince of its own. The entrance to the Mediterranean would then, it is argued, remain free. This is very nearly the proposal which we have all along ventured to suggest, though we still doubt whether it would not be better to make the coast State a dependency of Spain. This would secure her adhesion to the arrangement, and obviate the chance of Tangier and its surrounding country falling into a condition of intolerable anarchy. Anyhow, the proposal indicates a certain reasonableness and readiness to discuss upon the part of the French Colonial party.
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