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Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1926, Page 2

Euhockax poitics are with us always. The latest phase of special interest to Great Britain, is the Spanish Note regarding Tangier which involves several European nations. By a British Treaty with Morocco in 185(5 and a Spanish treaty in 18G1 a system of capitulations was applied to Tangier, at the south-eastern point of the Strait, of Gibraltar. These capitulations secured from the Sultan of Aforoeeo a recognition that the subjects of foreign Powers who resided in his dominion should be under the direct jurisdiction of their respective countries. The Convention of Madrid, in 1880, codified these capitulations and extended their benefits to all foreign .Powers. A further change came in 100-1, when Britain agreed to abandon all political rights in Morocco and Franco made an equivalent undertaking with reference to Egypt; in addition, France undertook to effect an agreement with Spain about AToroeeo, and later in the year Morocco wa spliL up into three spheres of influence—French. Spanish and the partially internationalised zone of Tangier. An item of this agreement provided that no coastal fortifications were to exist along the Moroccan coats from a point about a hundred miles within the strait to another well down the Atlantic, coast, save at a few points in Spain’s possession. Spain chafed under the arrangement, for two-thirds of Tangier’s European population wore Spaniards, A new situation was created at the end of 1923. France had taken advantage of the European war to increase her hold on Tangier, hut at the Conference of Paris, chiefly through the persistence of British negotiators, the neutrality of Tangier and its accessibility to the trade of all nations were formally established. By the fresh agreement of 1923. accepted by Spain in the following February, France obtained a dominant position, the Sultan’s subjection to a French protectorate being a set-off against the authority of the resident consuls nominally exercising joint .control. De Rivera’s present request for either a Spanish protectorate over Tangier or a Spanish mandate over it under the League raises the whole question again, and Italy is now coming into the controversy.