Delegate White to the
Secretary of State.
Algeciras, April 8,
1906.
No. 12.]
Sir: Referring to your telegram of the 28th ultimo,
I have the honor to inform you that in accordance therewith I asked the
conference on the 2d instant to express a “vœu” (which is stronger than the
English word “hope”) in favor of the equitable treatment of the Jews
particularly, as well as of the other non-Mussulman subjects of the Sultan
of Morocco, in words of which I inclose a copy herewith.
The response was unanimously favorable; every delegate, except the Moorish,
rising in his place to express his approval and support of my proposal, and
several of them, including the Duke of Almodovar in behalf of Spain, the
British, French, German, Italian, Belgian, and other delegates making short
speeches. The Moors said that they were sure the Sultan would pay the
attention which such a unanimous expression of opinion on the part of the
conference merited and, furthermore, that he would be happy to keep up the
system inaugurated by his father, of treating the Jews with fairness.
I have, etc.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Motion of the American Delegation.
The Government of the United States has always considered it as a duty to
associate itself to all that can contribute to the progress of
humanitarian ideas and that can secure the respect due to all religious
beliefs. Animated by these sentiments and by the friendship that has so
long subsisted between it and the Moroccan Empire, whose development it
follows with profound interest, my Government has charged me to invoke
the support of the conference, at the moment when it is going to end its
labors, in order to express a vceu for the welfare of the Jews in
Morocco.
I am happy to notice that the condition of the Jewish subjects of His
Shereefian Majesty has been much ameliorated during the reign of the
late Sultan Mouley-el-Hassan and that the present Sultan appears, as
much as it has been possible for him, to have treated them with equity
and kindness. But the agents of the Maghzen in the parts of the country
far removed from the [Page 1494] central
power are not always sufficiently inspired with the feelings of
tolerance and justice that animate their soverign.
The American delegation therefore begs the conference to be pleased to
express the vceu that His Shereefian Majesty continue the good policy
inaugurated by his father and maintained by His Majesty himself as
regards his Jewish subjects, and that he should see that his Government
neglects no opportunity to make known to its functionaries that the
Sultan insists that the Jews of his Empire and all his subjects, without
any distinction of belief, be treated with justice and equity.
