On Monday the German reply was presented to the French
reply of Saturday week, and on Tuesday it became known that the negotiations would be conducted for some days in conversations instead of by written replies. On the same evening " semi-official" statements were issued in Berlin— they are said to have been supplied from Paris, though it is strange that they were published first in Berlin—to the effect that " questions of principle " were still at stake. The result was naturally a sharp temporary set-back to public confidence. A deputation of bankers in Berlin visited the Foreign Office, and received assurances that everything was going on well in the negotiations, and that an early solution was almost certain. The recovery of confidence has been maintained up to the time we write, though there are really no new facts to cite in justifica- tion. The Paris correspondent of the Times says that the Madrid Convention of 1880 is now being discussed by the two countries and is full of difficulties. France, no doubt, would like this to lapse, but the Powers would have to agree to withdraw protection from all natives in the future. Germany would greatly dislike this, and would also dislike abandoning her Consular jurisdiction. The issue, in brief, is whether France is to have a complete protectorate of Morocco or not. She would not make great territorial concessions for anything short of that.
