Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1905

The Secretary of State to Ambassador White.

Department of State,
Washington , November 28, 1905 .

Sir: Supplementing my instruction of even date, and in connection with your functions as a representative of the United States at the Moroccan conference, it is desired that in all proper ways you shall urge upon the conference the consideration of guaranties of religious and racial tolerance in Morocco.

Concurrent testimony positively affirms the intolerance of the Mohammedan rule in that country toward non-Mussulmans in all that concerns their lives, avocations, and creeds. Jews, especially, appear to suffer from painful and injurious restrictions. I have been furnished by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff with a statement of the existing restrictions upon Moroccan Jews living in other than the harbor towns, the details of which appear well-nigh incredible and utterly at variance with any sound theory of the relation between the governing and governed classes. Were an American citizen, Jew or gentile, to suffer a tithe of such proscriptions in Morocco it would be impossible for this government to shut its eyes to their existence; and it is equally hard now to ignore them when we are called upon to enter, with Morocco as with other powers, upon the examination of schemes for bettering the relations of the Shereefian Empire with the countries to which it is bound by treaty engagements. It is alike the part of prudence and good will, on the one side as on the other, to restrain the spirit of intolerance and preclude the development of its effects into antagonism between all Mohammedans and non-Mohammedans. The powers are, it would seem, interested in seeking equality of privilege for their nationals and national interests in Morocco—not in emphasizing by the contrast of treaty discriminations in their favor, the class restrictions which weigh upon natives. To do so would but fan the popular prejudice and increase the spirit of resentment toward aliens. It is, moreover, evident that these restrictions operate to contract the field of commercial intercourse by barring a notable part of the population of Morocco from the open door of equal intercourse which we are so anxious to see established and by hampering the channels of barter and the opportunities of consumption and supply.

It is also evident that reform in this regard is of equal importance from the point of view of internal order and security, a matter provided for in the programme submitted for consideration by the conference. The first subject concerns the adequate policing of the interior of Morocco through an international agreement. Effective policing means and requires such change in internal conditions as will smooth away the class and caste impediments to a beneficial intercourse, remove the prejudices that exist against aliens, and render the people of Morocco receptive to the broad influences of friendly international intercourse. If on no other ground, the measures advocated in this instruction should necessarily commend themselves to the good judgment of the conferees because essentially contributory to the success of any practical scheme of interior police in Morocco.

I inclose for your information copy of a letter from Mr. Schiff communicating the statement above mentioned. It is the President’s wish that you give the subject your earnest attention and endeavor in all proper ways to impress its importance upon your colleagues in the conference.

I have, etc.,

Elihu Root.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Schiff to the Secretary of State.

William and Pine Streets,
New York , November 21, 1905 .

Dear Mr. Secretary: I have your valued communication of the 18th instant and thank you for the information therein contained concerning the expectation of the United States to take part in the international conference on Moroccan affairs.

I have also read with interest the programme agreed upon between France and Germany, of which you have been good enough to send me a copy. May I submit to you that it would be very desirable if our government can see its way to do so, that, now that the Moroccan situation is to be made the subject of international discussion, the United States insist that in any protocol which shall be adopted there be inserted a condition of proper treatment of Moroccan subjects of other faiths than the Mohammedan? While the Jew is, in Morocco, subject to particular iniquities, I am informed that Christians and all other sects are great sufferers, in Morocco, from Modammedan iniquities, and as was the case in the Berlin and other congresses when the participating powers insisted that the status of religious sects need be regulated by treaty, it appears to be most desirable that a similar course be followed in the coming international congress on Moroccan affairs.

* * * * * * *

For your information I take the liberty to inclose herein a statement of the restrictions against Jews now existing in Morocco, which has been sent to me from Europe, which restrictions, when read by an American, appear almost grotesque.

Thanking you in anticipation for giving this consideration, I am, with assurances of high esteem,

Most faithfully, yours,

Jacob H. Schiff.

[Subinclosure.]

jewish restrictions in morocco, especially in the interior.

A.—Restrictions in lodging and dress.

1. Moroccan Jews, with the exception of those living in harbor towns, must live in ghettos (mellah), the doors of which are closed at night.

2. Jews are compelled to wear a special garb, consisting of a heavy cap and heavy shoes. They are not allowed to wear any dress that could cause them to be taken for Mohammedans.

3. Outside of the mellah they must, as a sign of submissiveness, go barefooted and bareheaded. Where there are no mellahs, they must at least take off head gear and shoes in front of the moshees.

4. Outside the mellahs they must go on foot and may not use animals to convey them. Neither may they carry canes. Even the old and sick may use a reed only for support. Humiliating and brutal indignities by Mohammedans are of daily occurrence. The Moorish part of the population often, as a pastime, throw burning coal, broken glass, old tinware, etc., on the places which the Jews have to pass, and then enjoy the sight of the wounds, burns, and pains to which the naked feet of the Jews are subjected. All this goes unpunished. In the Moorish quarters the Jew may not pass any side streets in order to avoid a road that is not easily passable, but must use a street which the Arabs do not frequent. In passing the natives the Jews must go to the left, and if they do not do that they must retrace their steps and make way in the manner prescribed. To such and similar vexatious practices the Jews have to submit every day in the week.

5. Jews who are found outside the ghetto after sunset are, unless they have a permit, considered as outlawed and liable to the grossest maltreatment, for which there is no redress.

6. Jews can travel or move only with special permission from the sheik. Jews traveling may not be accompanied by their wives and children, who are kept back as a sort of hostage for the husband’s return. Jews who emigrate, if they can get permission at all to do so, must pay large sums as quit money. Emigrating women must pay twenty times as much as men, so that it is made impossible for families to remove.

7. Jews are not allowed to build their houses above a certain height.

8. As Jews are considered unclean by Mohammedans, they may not drink from public fountains or springs, nor get water from there. Neither may they make use of public baths; even bathing in the ghetto is not always permitted them.

B.—Restrictions in trade and commerce.

1. Jews may not own real estate outside of the ghetto.

2. They can not have stores or shops in the Moorish quarters of the town where goods are sold to the Moorish population, such as clothing, shoes, silk, etc. Jews who are in these industries are therefore compelled to have their goods sold through native Mohammedans, which often entails considerable loss.

3. In case the government warehouses, where grain and other articles are stored, are overcrowded, or if their contents is spoiled through being stored there too long, the Jews are compelled to buy such goods at the price at which the undamaged article sells.

4. Jewish provision dealers—as butchers, grocers, bakers, etc.—are forced to furnish their goods to officials gratis; if they refuse to do so they are hampered in their business or ruined altogether.

C.—Tributes in money and labor.

1. Jews and their wives and daughters are forced to work for all public officials at all times, even on the Sabbath and holy days, and the pay they receive in return is far below the common wages. Women are often compelled during such work to have their heads uncovered, which orthodox Jews consider as sinful, as unchastity.

2. Jews are forced to perform labors which the Mohammedans think beneath them, such as the cleaning of closets and sewers, or flaying, etc. Frequently they are forced by the governors to act as executioners.

3. When the heads of rebels are sent to a town to be placed on exhibition at the public gate, the Jews are forced to salt such heads before they are exhibited; even on the Sabbath such labors are imposed upon them, and they lay themselves open to great cruelties if they refuse the work on account of the Sabbath.

D.—Legal restrictions.

1. A Jew may not testify in court; therefore a case of a Jew against a Mussulman is lost from the start. Consequently, in cases of dispute the Jew must be satisfied to do what the Mussulman demands.

2. As a Jew can not intrust his case against a Mohammedan to a Jewish counsel, he is obliged either to conduct his own case or to engage a Mohammedan lawyer pr to lose on account of not being represented in court at all. No Jew may act as counsel for a Mohammedan.

3. Moreover, it is in the power of the Mohammedans to bring suit against a Jew and to have him convicted and severely sentenced by false testimony; and even if hundreds of Jews were ready to swear to the innocence of their coreligionist not one of them would be allowed to testify.

4. If a Jew is murdered by a Mohammedan, it is considered a sufficient punishment if the murderer pays a sum equal to about 1,000 marks ($250). No other punishment awaits the slayer. He is simply imprisoned until this blood money is paid, and the authorities pocket the larger part of the amount, while the family of the victim gets only a trifling sum. Often the murderer goes entirely free. A Moorish saying is: You may murder with impunity up to seven Jews.

5. The mere charge of religious desecration is punished by death; the charge of immoral intercourse with a Mohammedan woman, even if this be a prostitute, is punished by unlimited imprisonment; and it is permitted to beat the accused until he confesses; if, thus tortured, he confesses or if Mohammedan witnesses testify against him, he is punished by death.

6. A Jew who is condemned to imprisonment or corporal punishment must pay the fee of all officials who are employed in this punishment, and if unable to do so he must, after he has served his term, remain in prison until this money is paid.

7. In prisons Jews are not kept in the ordinary prison cells, but in moist, underground holes.

8. If it should occur to a Mohammedan to maintain that a Jew has sworn off his faith the Jew must become a Mohammedan, and if this Jew later is found to live according to the Jewish ritual death by stoning or by fire awaits him.

E.—Other political and social restrictions.

1. Jews are not allowed to follow liberal professions.

2. They are not permitted to bear arms; when they travel, therefore, they are exposed to robbery and murder without being able to defend themselves or their property.

3. Jews pay a head tax, to be dispensed for military service; when paving this money they have to suffer all manner of humiliations. The most frequent one is that they are struck on the head.

4. Jews can not hold any official or public position. (Some exceptions to this have occurred without this, however, aiding the bulk of the Jews.)