the British Government subsequently found the means of reconciling that major interest with the desertion of Morocco.
This determination on the part of the British Government to prevent the absorption of Morocco ran counter to French colonial ambitions. The project of a great North African Empire which should ultimately equal in importance the lost French Empire of the Indies had long haunted the imagination of the French Imperialist school. Algeria and Tunis had already been acquired. Egypt was henceforth and finally excluded from the picture. Morocco remained—the richest portion of the Northern Continent, a great and beautiful country which, with its favourable climatic conditions, its magnificent spinal column in the Atlas mountain chains, with their numerous rivers, varied elevations and fertile soil, can grow anything from ground nuts to tea, from wheat to Indian corn, contains valuable mineral deposits, produces the finest horses in the world, and could sustain innumerable flocks and herds.
To "jump the claim" while the British were fully occupied in suppressing the Boer Republics was the French Government's plan. But Spain, with her long historical connection and her settlements on the Coast, could not be set aside. Italy, still sore over Tunis (see next chapter) must have her pound of African flesh before France could feel free to move. Then there was Germany. German interests in Morocco were purely commercial. Like Britain she stood for the "open door," and had strongly supported the diplomatic mission Lord Salisbury sent to Fez in 1892. Her explorers had made notable contributions to our knowledge of Morocco. Her Government had maintained direct diplomatic representations with the Moorish Court since 1873, and had concluded a commercial Treaty with the Sultan. This Treaty the German Government had submitted before ratifying it to the signatory Powers of the Madrid Convention of 1880. In short, Morocco was an international question, and had been since the first International Conference on its affairs met at Madrid in 1880, the Convention drawn up on that occasion assuring to all the Powers represented "the most favoured nation treatment."
