Sir Edward Grey, who followed, fully endorsed Lord Percy's view
that the transaction should not be regarded is a mere matter of profit and loss. Goodwill could. not be expressed in the terms of a treaty, but it was none the leis a valuable asset in international relations, and particularly welcome in the' present instance, because France, when she had friendly relations with other Powers, had specially dis- tinguished herself by her capacity for friendship. Some Of the subsequent speakers critibised details in regard to trade concessions, but, as Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman rightly observed, the Most remarkable feature of the debate was the 'absence of a single discordant note as to the main puipoA and object' of the Convention. Mr. Balfour, in replying lb various criticisms, defended the thirty years' lithit 'to trade
arrangements in Morocco, on the ground that treaties covering an indefinite time were apt.-to become obsolete, and confirmed a statement made last January in the Times that certain difficult questions connected with French rights in Muscat would be referred to the Hague Tribunal. In conclusion, Mr. Balfour observed that the great danger to the peace of the world lay in the relations between non-Christian and Oriental States on the one side, and the great European Powers on the other. By this Convention Morocco, at any rate, was removed from the category of States dangerous to European peace. The Bill was then read without a division.
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