The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1911. MOROCCO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 11, 7 July 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1911. MOROCCO.

Germany's "mailed fist," thanks to the Kaiser and his journalistic satellites, has been almost generally accepted as the acme of power. Germany's mailed fist is as a general thing taken to mean her land forces, but latterly the tremendous activity shown by our cousins has led us to the conclusion that her naval mailed fist is as formidable as her military steel mitten. Germany is in the position of a Power having an intolerable amount of fighting machinery with nothing to fight. The military spiritentirely in it 3 scientific and emotional sense pervades the German race through and through. Germany has a practically untried navy and army, a gigantic machine which under modern conditions has never been tried, if we except the small unsuccessful and woefully expensive bout the Kaiser engaged in with savage Hereros in Africa. Germany, it would seem, desires a chance for the exhibition of her new power, and finds this in Morocco. She has a right of interference in Morocco because she has subjects there and commercial interests. France has been the Power ' which has with more or less success induced administrative reforms in a country which still preserves the most ab- > solute form of individual monarchy known, A conference .by the Powers in 1904 gave our friends the right to undertake these reforms, and the natural enemy of France —Germany—in the following year raised many objections, as might have been anticipated. A demonstration of force by Germany is an aggression that has come as a surprise to the Powers. Initially Germany's aggression is purely commercial, for her whole policy is to find outlets for her capital and land for her surplus population. Her intention to beat France and Britain has never been disguised, and she finds an excuse for her extended interference in the unrest of the Sultanate and the fact that she has subjects there. Her further excuse is that France, which was permitted to attempt reforms, has signally failed, lacking, as Germany also lacks, any element of tact in dealing with a war-like subject or semi-sub-ject race. Apart from commercial influence, it is hard to understand what Germany wants with Morocco. Much of it is desert, and all of it is in constant barbaric uproar. Germany's influence, however, must be greatly extended, should she be successful in obtaining a naval base in Morocco. It may be, therefore, but a means to an end, but certainly a disconcerting one to Britain, Spain and France. In the meantime the movement of Germany may be regarded more in the nature of strategy than aggression, and nicely calculated to meet future requirements. That Germany's peculiar methods as applied to Morocco will have any other effect than making "confusion worse confounded" few will doubt. She is always unsuccessful in administering matters outside the Fatherland, and there is no present indication that her move will be either a help to the disturbed Sultanate or a menace to any Power that keeps its thinking cap secure.