File No. 594.
Chargé Philip to the Secretary of State.
Tangier, August 11, 1906.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of instruction No. 46 of July 26, 1906,a in reference to the action to be taken by the American minister, on the occasion of his mission to Fez in September next, for the purpose of facilitating the renting of houses by missionaries, and inclosing copies of three letters from the president of the Gospel Missionary Union and the Moroccan secretary of the same.
The department’s instruction in this matter will be at once brought to the attention of Mr. Gummeré on his return from leave of absence.
Without presuming in any way to anticipate the possible result of such steps as may be taken in order to facilitate the renting by the [Page 882] American missionaries of a house in the Moorish quarter of the city of Mequinez, I beg to state that during my sojourn in Fez, two years ago, I went quite thoroughly into this particular question and was much impressed by the formidability of the obstacles to the acquirement of such a house in comparison with the apparent necessities for such a residence.
Mequinez is the least frequented by foreigners of the larger cities of Morocco, and its Moorish population is more imbued with an undercurrent of fanaticism, and consequently opposed to the advent of such residents, than in these cities of the empire where certain influences of an outside civilization have had a beneficial effect in this respect. In the course of my inquiries at Fez and from conversations on the subject with the Sultan’s vizier and others there I realized the objections of the Moorish Government to the acquirement of a residence in the Moorish quarter of Mequinez were not based on a lack of consideration for American missionaries in particular, but that the chief motive was a genuine fear that such a step would be more or less certain to involve the Maghzen in some serious trouble with a foreign government, owing to the great difficulty in furnishing adequate protection to its nationals in this remote city, where a spirit of hostility is present in all classes of the Mohammedan population which might lead to acts beyond the power of the Maghzen to control.
American missionaries reside at present in the Mellah or Jewish quarter of Mequinez, from which all parts of the city are accessible, and this is not apparently objected to by the Moorish officials; I was informed, however, that the location and the accommodation are very undesirable, and taking all things into consideration the importance of a house in the more desirable Mohammedan quarter to the resident missionaries can be easily appreciated.
No missionaries of other nationalities have secured houses in the Moorish quarter of Mequinez up to the present time, and the question is therefore one of considerable moment. Several members of American missions whom I have met have been hard-working, earnest men, who understood well the country and the people, and they all appeared to consider the acquisition of a house in Mequinez as of great importance to the furthering of their work.
It is to be hoped that the existing objections will be overcome and that the Moorish Government will realize the necessity of protecting the rights of foreign residents in all accessible parts of the country.
I am, etc.,
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