are
unable to pay on the conditions arranged between us. We did not
ask your subjects to reside and trade on Moorish soil. In fact,
we have invariably discouraged their so doing. Troubles exist in
Morocco, it is true, but we are far greater sufferers than
you--our unbidden guests. And but for the wholesale smuggling of
repeating rifles by _your_ people, our tribes would not be able to
cause the disorders of which you complain. As to your intention to
intervene in our affairs, we agree to no interference. If you are
resolved to try force, we believe that the Faith of the Prophet
will conquer. We still believe there is a God stronger than man.
And should the fight go against us, we believe that it is better
to earn Paradise in a holy war for the defence of our soil, than
to submit tamely to Christian rule.'

"The position, however lamentable, is intelligible; but on the
other hand it is incredible that France--her mind made up long ago
that she is to inherit the Promised Land of Sunset--will sit down
meekly and allow herself to be flouted by the monarch and people
of a crumbling power like Morocco. And this is what she has to
face. Not indeed a nation, as we understand the term, but a
gathering of units differing widely in character and race--Arabs,
Berbers, mulattoes, and negroes--unable to agree together on any
subject under the sun but one, and that one the defence of Islam
from foreign intervention. Under the standard of the invincible
Prophet they will join shoulder to shoulder. And hopeless and
pathetic as it may seem, they will defy the disciplined ranks and
magazine guns of Europe. Thus, wherever our sympathies may lie,
the possibilities of a peaceful settlement of the Morocco question
appear to be dwindling day by day. The anarchy paramount in
three-quarters of the sultanate is not only an ever-increasing
peril to European lives and property, but a direct encouragement
to intervention. Of one thing we in Morocco have no kind of doubt.
The landing of foreign troops, even for protective service, in any
one part of the coast would infallibly be the signal for a general
rising in every part of the Empire. No sea-port would be safe for
foreigners or for friendly natives until protected by a strong
European force. And, once begun, the task of 'pacifying' the
interior must