Delegates White and Gummeré to the Secretary of State.
Sir: Having outlined to you in our dispatch No. 1, of the 25th ultimo, the result of the first two meetings of this conference, we now have the honor to acquaint you with its further proceedings to this date.
[Page 1478]The actual discussion must not be looked for in the official accounts of the sessions of the conference, which show a marked tendency to register decisions rather than to provide an opportunity for argument. The questions thus far at issue, which have been largely of a technical order, are debated mostly in the frequent meetings of the committee of the whole, whose proceedings are not to be published.
The work is further prepared for this body by a committee of experts composed of the second delegates to the conference, most of whom, being diplomatic representatives at Tangier, are familiar with the workings of the Moorish administration. There has been little real difficulty in settling these details, which are largely of a nonpolitical order; but their final adoption will necessarily depend to a great extent on the solution of the more important questions which the conference still has to consider.
We herewith inclose (inclosure No. 1a) the report of the proceedings of the second session, which, appearing too late for our first dispatch, contains the articles agreed upon for the suppression of contraband of arms, and the reply of the Sultan to whom they had been submitted (inclosure No. 2a).
Beginning at the meeting of the committee of the whole on January 27, the conference proceeded to the examination of measures intended to improve the finances of Morocco (article 3 of the draft programme of last July). The feature of this session was the project of taxation (inclosure No. 3a) submitted by the Moorish delegates. While including a very considerable increase in import duties, it also recommended the creation of new taxes on carriages, theaters, telephones, etc.; in other words, on articles at present for the most part either nonexisting in Morocco or restricted in their use to foreigners. This project revealed to a marked degree the fact that in the Moorish mind the chief advantage for Morocco to be expected from the conference is the increase of the Sultan’s revenues by means of taxation levied principally upon foreigners. In justice to the Moors it must be said that their position is not an easy one, as apart from their not unnatural disinclination to foreign interference they are powerless to accept any of the proposals of the conference without submitting them to the Sultan. They have, therefore, adopted the usual tactics of oriental diplomacy in the direction of delay and dilatoriness; but the conference has overcome this difficulty to a great extent by agreeing to submit the final regulation of technical details to the diplomatic body at Tangier.
That the present system of taxation is full of anomalies and injustice is readily apparent. Yet the conference, aware of the impossibility of now enforcing any radical change in the methods practiced, did not feel justified in doing more than slightly increasing already existing taxes and agreeing that foreigners and protected subjects in Morocco should no longer be exempt from their burdens.
The powers are not opposed in principle to a reasonable increase in taxation, but they desire to obtain guaranties for the proper expenditure of the new revenues on actual improvements. The special committee to which the proposals regarding taxation had been referred accordingly drew up a plan consisting of seventeen articles, the first eight of which were adopted at the official session on February 1 [Page 1479] (inclosure No. 4a). As mentioned to you in our telegram No. 7 of that date certain suggestions of the Moorish delegates, notably a stamp tax on legal documents and a 2 per cent tax on the proceeds of real-estate sales, were accepted. A paragraph (2) was also inserted tending to carry out, at least so far as is now practicable, article 11 of the Madrid convention, permitting foreigners to own property in Morocco, which, save at Tangier, had always remained a dead letter.
At this sitting Mr. White suggested an amendment, the object of which was to make temporary instead of permanent a percentage proposed to be taken by the consuls from the taxes they are to collect from their fellow-citizens to cover expenses, on the theory that when the Sultan’s Government shall be in a position to collect its own taxes it will not be fair to make the Moorish treasury suffer a loss from the retention by foreign powers of a right insisted upon by them when it will no longer be necessary. This amendment Avas opposed by the Spanish delegates and accordingly withdrawn. The matter was of slight importance, but we have reason to believe that the Spanish delegates appreciated our conciliatory attitude in yielding to their desires. They admitted afterwards the justice of Mr. White’s argument, but said they felt obliged for political requirements to oppose it.
At the informal meeting held on February 3 the conference decided that its special committee should examine the conditions in which a slight additional tax on imports could be levied and a general reform of the customs service be effected.
The remaining 9 articles of the 17 previously drawn up by the special committee were adopted at the fifth session of the conference (inclosure No. 5a), held on February 7. The most important of these, article 8, accepted as a temporary measure, is an additional tax of 25 per cent on already existing import duties. It is to be levied subject to an understanding that the proceeds thereof should be lodged in a special caisse and used exclusively for the improvement of the ports of Morocco. The administration of such caisse is reserved, however, as a matter for subsequent discussion.
It is proper to add that in addition to the proceedings described in this dispatch the most important questions, the organization of the police and the proposed state bank for Morocco, in respect to which there is a divergence of opinion between France and Germany, have formed the subject of daily private conversations, almost ever since the conference met, among the senior delegates of those two countries, of Great Britain, Italy, and the United States, and occasionally of those of Austria and Russia.
We have been fully cognizant of what transpired at these conversations, the object of which has been to bring about an agreement satisfactory to the two countries first mentioned outside the conference, in the hope of avoiding any discussion at the latter which might reveal to the Moorish delegates a lack of unanimity among the powers.
As the conversations were, however, absolutely confidential and no one participating therein is to be bound by any opinion or suggestion expressed, we feel that we are not authorized to mention any details of the same. But it may be permitted to us to say that, while their object has not yet been attained, we have reason to hope that it still [Page 1480] may be, as the private meetings between the French and German delegates resulting therefrom still continue and the personal relations existing between the latter are perfectly cordial.
We further have the honor to inclosea copies of such telegrams as have been sent to you from January 25 to this date.
We have, etc.,
- Henry White.
- S. R. Gummeré.