FRANCO-GERMAN ANGER

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1728, 19 April 1913, Page 5

FRANCO-GERMAN ANGER

--■— -—« FRENCH CAPTAIN ARRESTED. FOR ESPIONAGE. % Telegraph-Press Aesociation-Cor-yrißht Berlin, April 17. Iresh charges of French insults to Germans, in ilm K-'viera ami elsewhere are bciuy given prominence in l| lc newspapers. The irritation is wurso than <»cr the Anadir nff:iir. JJ«' .Morel, a French explain i,r on™inecrs was arrested wlrli- inspecting a bridge ill- n . s , Bavai-ii,. Ho donivs espionage, and ta y.s In- was merely spending Jiis leave in (ravelling. THE NANCY "MOBBING." NO VIOLENCE SHOWN. Paris, April 17. M. Ogier, Councillor of State, sent to inquire regarding the alleged -mobbing of six Gorman merchants at tho railway station at Nancy, examined the Casino employees there. They were unanimous in stating thai; tho Germans had not been subjected to violence. The newspapers "Le Matin" and "Journal des Debats" declare that whatever tho results of tho inquiry tho Government must tako severe steps to prevent a recurrence of such an incident. AT AGADIR. In April, 1911, disorders broke out in Morocco, imperilling, as the French alleged, the position of the Sultan and the safety of the Europeans at Fez. Tho French Government dispatched an expedition there, and 'on May 21 General Mouler, in command of tho French troops, arrived at Fez after some skirmishing. J'ranee s action was bitterly attacked bv the Gorman press as infringing the Treaty of Algeeiras, which had recognised tho independence of the Sultnn of Morocco. Suddenly, on July 1, Germany ' notified the Sultan of Morocco of her intention to send a, warship to protect German subjects at Agadir, a Moroccan port on tho Atlantic coast, 500 miles south of Gibraltar, and immediately tho German gunboat Panther arrived there, and slio was almost immediately joined by a larger German vessel, the Berlin. A condition of extreme tension was created in Europe, and there were fears of immediate war. On July (j Mr. Asquith stated m the House of Commons that Britain would fulfil her treatv obligations .to Franco. "Conversations 1 ' concerning Morocco had already begun between the French and German Governments. Germany demanded, as tho price of leaving Agadir, the cession of the greater part of the French Congo and of France's reversionary' right to the acquisition of the Congo Free State, international control of the Moroccan public ' services, and special commercial privileges in Morocco. Franco flatly refused to admit international control in Morocco, or to grant Germany special trade advantages—at the expense of Britain. Negotiations dragged on wearily—the eutiro German press joining in a campaign -dcnounciii" Britain as "the enemy" that stood behind and encouraged France —till September, when G-crmnny showed a moro. accommodating spirit, promising to withdraw from Agadir on condition that tho "open door" in Morocco was guaranteed and that compensation was granted by Franco on tho Congo. On March i two treaties- were signed between France and Germany, embodying these terms. Germany was ceded 100.000 square miles of French territory in the Congo Basin.