File No. 2151/238–B.

The Secretary of State to the Spanish Chargé.1

Dear Mr. Chargé: Referring to the interview with you yesterday and to the draft which you handed me of the note proposed to be communicated to Mulai Hafid through the dean of the diplomatic body at Tangier, formulating the terms and conditions of the guaranties to be given by the new Sultan, I have the pleasure to inclose a memorandum in response whereby the Government of the United States, acquiesces in the proposed conditions precedent to the recognition of Mulai Hafid as Sultan of Morocco.

I am, etc.,

Elihu Root.
[Inclosure.]

Memorandum.

Due consideration has been given to the draft of a note proposed to be communicated to Mulai Hafid through the dean of the diplomatic body at Tangier, which draft was handed to the Secretary of State on the 19th instant by the Spanish chargé d’affaires.

An identic draft was at the same time handed to the Secretary of State by the ambassador of France.

The note appears to be satisfactorily framed with a view to the safeguarding of the interests of all the powers having treaty relations with Morocco, as well in respect to their several conventional engagements as under the general act [Page 651] of Algeciras, and under the precepts of international law, while at the same time conserving the equal rights of all the powers in regard to direct contractual and especial matters not growing out of the treaties or the act of Aigeciras.

The Government of the United States deems it necessary that its own interests and those of its citizens and commerce be confirmed and guarded, and if the obligation to confirm and guard such interests be made and accepted in the terms of the proposed note, the Government of the United States is prepared, for its part, to recognize Mulai Hafid as the Sultan of Morocco.

The Government of the United States, for its part, favors the proposal that the communication of the note be effected, in the name of all the powers, through the medium of the dean of the diplomatic body at Tangier, and that the reply of the Sultan be communicated to the several powers through the same channel.

The minister of the United States at Tangier will be forthwith instructed by cable to put himself in touch with the dean of the diplomatic body, to the end that the acquiescence of the United States in the proposed step shall be definitely made known to his colleagues, and that, in the event of categorical and unqualified acceptance of the offered terms being made by Mulai Hafid, the recognition of Mulai Hafid, by the United States, for its own part, shall be effected coincidently with the like recognition by the other treaty powers.

  1. Same, mutatis mutandis, to French ambassador, Oct. 20. 1908, and German chargé, Oct. 22, 1908.