eneral
international interest, and had no bearing upon the internal affairs of
states. Such, however, was not the character of the conference which
convened at Algeciras, Spain, in December, 1905, for the purpose of
adjusting the very serious dispute that had arisen between France and
Germany over the status of Morocco. France had been engaged for some
years in the peaceful penetration of Morocco. By the terms of the
Entente of 1904 England recognized Morocco as being within the French
sphere of influence and France agreed to recognize England's position
in Egypt. The German Kaiser had no idea of permitting any part of the
world to be divided up without his consent. In March, 1905, while on a
cruise in the Mediterranean, he disembarked at Tangier and paid a visit
to the Sultan "in his character of independent sovereign." As the
Russian armies had just suffered disastrous defeats at the hands of the
Japanese, France could not count on aid from her ally and the Kaiser
did not believe that the recently formed Entente was strong enough to
enable her to count on English support. His object in landing at
Tangier was, therefore, to check and humiliate France while she was
isolated and to break up the Entente before it should develop into an
alliance. Delcasse, the French foreign minister, wanted to stand firm,
but Germany demanded his retirement and the prime minister accepted his
resignation. In recognition of this triumph, the German chancellor
Count von Buelow was given the title of Prince. Not satisfied with this
achievement, the Kaiser demanded a general European conference on the
Moroccan question, and, in order to avoid war, President Roosevelt
persuaded France to submit the whole dispute to the powers interested.
The Algeciras conference turned out to be a bitter disappointment to
Germany. Not only did France receive the loyal support of England, but
she was also backed by the United States and even by Italy--a warning
to Germany that the Triple Alliance was in danger. As the conference
was called nominally for the purpose of instituting certain
administrative reforms in Morocco, President Roosevelt decided, in view
of our rights under a commercial treaty of 1880, to take part in the
proceedings. The American delegates were Henry White, at that time
ambassador to Italy, and Samuel R. Gummere, minister to Morocco. As
the United States professed to have no political interests at stake,
its delegates were ins