Here are the provisions for their protection:
Art. IV. "The two Governments, equally attached to the principle of commercial liberty, both in Egypt and Morocco, declare that they will not lend themselves to any inequality either in the establishment of customs rights or other taxes, or in the establishment of tariffs for transport on the railways.... This mutual agreement is valid for a period of thirty years" (subject to extensions of five years).
Art. V. secures the maintenance in their posts of British officials in the Moorish service, but while it is specially stipulated that French missionaries and schools in Egypt shall not be molested, British missionaries in Morocco are committed to the tender mercies of the French.
Thus there can be no immediate exhibition of favouritism beyond the inevitable placing of all concessions in French hands, and there is really not much ground of complaint, while there is a hope of cause for thankfulness. Released from its former bugbears, no longer open to suspicion of secret designs, our Foreign Office can afford to impart a little more backbone into its dealings with Moorish officials; a much more acceptable policy should,[page 305] therefore, be forthwith inaugurated, that the Morocco traders may see that what they have lost in possibilities they have gained in actualities. Still more! the French, now that their hands are free, are in a position to "advise" reforms which will benefit all. Thus out of the ashes of one hope another rises.
[*] See [Appendix.]
[page 307]
PART III
XXXII
ALGERIA VIEWED FROM MOROCCO
"One does not become a horseman till one has fallen."