SHORT-SIGHTED STATESMANSHIP.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3320, 12 September 1911, Page 7

SHORT-SIGHTED STATESMANSHIP.

ONE VIEW -.OF THE CRISIS

The existence of 'Morocco in its present state (writes “Vanoe” in a lively article in the London “Referee”) is a sign that our civilisation is really enamel, not a fine substitute for. the elemental. The jealousy of Christendom has left Morocco for eighteen hundred 1 years in the same state as it was when Jugurtha was surrendered to the Romans. Within four days of Portsmouth is a fertile territory under a climate fit to grow corn for all Western Europe, Morocco, the abode of savages —picturesque and interesting savages as compared with the magnates of Mark Lane, Paris, or Madrid —but still savages. A few years ago France and England, conscious of peril in the direction of Central Europe, agreed to pool their differences. England was to clear out of Morocco; France was to cease from troubling in Egypt and to abrogate the obnoxious clause in the Treaty of Utrecht which created a running sore owing to the friction over fishing rights in Newfoundland. As in the case of England’s. Treaty of Alliance with Japan, the policy of our Foreign Office was short-sighted cunning rather sagacious statesmanship. On the surface the bargain was a good one. The English quarrel with France was composed, and if the free hand which France had obtained in Morocco led to trouble the mandarins of the Foreign Office assumed' that [Morocco trouble would be merely the affair of France. But thev reckoned without the hosts of Central Europe. The mandarins were not blind; they were short-sighted. For years past it has been plain that Germany would claim a share, if not the monopoly, of any place in the sun that went vacant. The disposal of Morocco bv England and France and the agreement with Spain did not annul or dispose of the intention of Germany to take a hand in the game. What right had we to dispose of Morocco to suit our book which is more valid than the right of Germany to dispose of Morocco to suit her book? The right of Sea Power, and none other. The country belongs to no European Power, though three of them watch the: rich and luscious prize with the slobbering mouths of famished carnivores gazing on a herd of antelope. Treaties do not count with the carnivorous. The power of Germany to make herself felt existed when England marketed ri Hits in Morocco which did not belong “to her. The French Republic, single-handed, dare not occupy or annex territory coveted by Germany. Whether the “conversation” that ought to have taken place five years ago can now be held with, success is uncertain. What is certain is that the German move has been taken only after exhaustive analysis of every possible variation of a gambit, the first move of which is the occupation of the harbor ■at Agadyr. To tear up an International treaty is nothing in these days; the only wonder is that so many British dupes are still found to rely on the sloshy language of sentiment as an adequate substitute for grim fact. The Panther was sent to Agadyr not to annoy England and France, but because Germany wants a hit of Morocco or its equivalent elsewhere.