FRANCE AND MOROCCO.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1415, 16 April 1912, Page 7

FRANCE AND MOROCCO.

RAILWAY SURVEY IN HAND.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright

Paris, April U. Tho newspapers consider that the dispatch of surveyors to lay out tho railway from Tangier to Fez shows an intention on the part of tho French Government to hasten the organisation of Morocco without awaiting tho results of tho negotiations with Spain. A MOROCCAN NIGHTMARE, FRANCE AND HER- ONEROUS BURDENS. : The French people are now oppressed with a. Moroccan nightmare, and a fear is growing among them that with tho conclusion of the Franco-German treaty tueir difficulties in Morocco have only begun. "Wo havo cut the cloth -and now we havo to sew it together" was tho resigned rayin" of terrible Queen Catherine de Medlcis in a like case. These agreements (writes the Paris correspondent of the New lork "Evening Post") oblige France to do any number of things, while Germany and England and tho other nations look on nncf profit. It is incredible that German industrial and commercial men should object to the agreement. And it is wonderful that American trade should not wake up to the new market and field of effort, in which France agrees tcykeep the peace, and do the policing and tee that communications are opened and kent freo without English or Germans or Americans being taxed or burdened in the slightest degree. Instead of the French penetration of Morocco, of which so much was made, the French have now to do all the work that others may penetrate. A passing review of tho Moroccan territory will show what the Freneh-havc on their hands. . First, Tangier has to bo internationalised, and Germany exacts that no other railway shall be begun in Morocco until the line from Tangier is completed. As this line has to pass through tho Spanish zone of Morocco, before it reaches the French protectorate, and asSpain will not allow France , to say boo! in her territory, we have hero an international railway puzzle of tho first order. 'Die dispositions of Germany in the matter may be gathered from the imperative conditions which she demanded of Franco, for railway building in Morocco shortly before making her warlike demonstration at Agadir. They have just been disclosed by Senator 13uudiu in the report of the Parliamentary Commission. American capital, which has been trying to build much-needed railways in Spain under discouraging difficulties, can judge from Germany's ideas of equal opportunity what prospect it will have in Morocco. First, nil tho material for the French frontier line must be such that German industry can match it for all connections in Morocco; second, Tangier to Fez. must, be built first, although France is given no power to secure the construction ontsido her own zone; third, Gorman industry must have "compensations" (!) for not having a hand in the exclusively French military lines; and fourth—this .is the most a'mazing of all—France must cnga"o for the future to exclude from tho awarding of public contracts all companies that compete with tho Moroccan company which Germany and France were to carry on together as a "consortium." This was'nothing short of a monopoly in Morocco for German industry, supported by French capital nnd the French army.