Memorandum to the Spanish Legation.
Washington, January 20, 1908.
The Department of State has received the memorandum of the legation of Spain, dated January 17, 1908, and takes note of the statements made therein that the grave aspect which present events in Morocco may assume from a confirmation of the rumored deposition of Sultan Abd el Aziz, proclaimed at Fez on the 3d instant, may constrain the Government of Spain to take forceful measures should the defense of the interests with which it has been intrusted in Morocco so demand; but that in spite of their importance the events that have heretofore taken place in that empire have not yet induced His Majesty’s Government to depart from the line of conduct originally mapped out and strictly put into practice.
With respect to the request made in the memorandum for the opinion of this Government should incidents which are not unforeseen make a change of action on the part of His Majesty’s Government advisable, the Government of the United States, reaffirming the reservation made on its part to the Algeciras convention, would interpose no objection to such action as may prove necessary to protect life and property, to secure for all peoples the widest equality of trade and privilege with Morocco, and to facilitate the institution of reforms in that country tending to insure complete cordiality of intercourse without and stability of administration within for the common good.