ence now, the Sultan acted wisely and within his rights. The
fact that any two or three of them may have agreed to give one of
their number a "free hand," should it suit her purposes to upset the
_status quo_, does not theoretically affect the position, though it
has suggested the advisability of further discussion. It is only in
virtue of their combined might that the Powers in question are enabled
to assume the position they do.

Spain, the only power with interests in Morocco other than commercial,
had been settled with by a subsequent agreement in October, 1904,
for she had been consulted in time. Special clauses dealing with her
claims to consideration had even been inserted in the Anglo-French
Agreement--

Art. VII. "This arrangement does not apply to the points now
occupied by Spain on the Moorish shore of the Mediterranean.

Art. VIII. "The two Governments, animated by their sincerely
friendly sentiments for Spain, take into particular consideration
the interests she possesses, owing to her geographical position
and to her territorial possessions on the Moorish shore of the
Mediterranean, in regard to which the French Government will make
some arrangement with the Spanish Government ... (which) will be
communicated to the Government of His Britannic Majesty."

These Articles apply to Ceuta, which Spain withheld from the
Portuguese after the brief union of the crowns in the sixteenth
century; to Velez, an absolutely worthless rock, captured in 1564 by
Garcia de Toledo with fifteen thousand men, the abandonment of which
has more than once been seriously urged in Spain; to Alhucemas, a
small island occupied in 1673; to Melilla, a huge rock peninsula
captured, on his own account, by Medina Sidonia in 1497; and to the
Zaffarine (or Saffron) Islands, only one of which is used, in the
seizure of which the French were cleverly forestalled in 1848. All are
convict stations; unless heavily fortified in a manner that at present
they are not, they would not be of sufficient value to tempt even a
foe of Spain. Ceuta and Melilla alone are worthy of consideration, and
the former is the only one it might ever pay to fortify.

So far have matters gone. The conference asked for by Morocco--the
flesh thrown to the wolves--is to form the next Act. To this
conference the unfortunate Sultan would like to appeal for protection
against the now "free hand" of France, but in consenting to discuss