not disclose the real springs of her action, though they must have been patent to all the world.  She notified the Powers of the dispatch of her warship, explaining that the sending of the Panther, which “happened to be in the neighbourhood,” was owing to the representations of German firms, as a temporary measure for the protection of German proteges in that region, and taken “in view of the possible spread of disorders prevailing in other parts of Morocco.”

In France, on the other hand, it was asserted that the step was not in conformity with the spirit of the Franco-German Agreement of 1909, in which Germany resolved not to impede French special interests, that there were no Germans at Agadir, and that only nine months previously Germany had angrily protested at the calling of a French cruiser at the same port.  The reference was to the visit of the French cruiser Du Chaylu in November, 1910, when the captain paid a visit to the local pasha.  The German Foreign Secretary eventually said Germany had no objection to France using her police rights even in a closed port, and the admission was taken as a fresh renunciation on the part of Germany of any right to interference.  Feeling ran high for a time both in France and Germany, while the German action added to the sentiment of hostility to Germany in England, and English political circles perceived in it a design on Germany’s part of acquiring a port on the Moroccan coast.  The word “compensation,” which afterwards was to prove the solution of Franco-German differences was now first mentioned by Germany.

After England’s determination to support France had been made plain by ministerial statements, the entire Morocco episode was closed by the Franco-German Agreement signed on November 5, 1911, as “explanatory and supplementary” to the Franco-German Agreement of 1909.  The effect of the new Agreement was practically to give France as free a hand in Morocco as England has in Egypt, with the reservation that “the proceedings of France in Morocco leave untouched the economic equality of all nations.”  The Agreement further gives France “entire freedom of action” in Morocco, including measures of police.  The rights and working area of the Morocco State bank were left as they stood under the Act of Algeciras.  The sovereignty of the Sultan is assumed, but not explicitly declared.  The compensation to Germany for her agreement to “put no hindrances in the way of French administration” and for the “protective rights” she recognizes as “belonging to France in the Shereefian Empire” was the cession by France to Germany of a large portion of her Congo territory in mid-Africa, with access to the Congo and its tributaries, the Sanga and Ubangi.

While the ground-idea of Germany’s policy of economic expansion, and the source of all her trouble with England, is her insistence on her “place in the sun,” the difficulty attending it for other nations is to determine the place’s nature and extent, so that every one shall be comfortable and prosperous all round.