781.003/256b

The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt

My Dear Mr. President: In recent negotiations with the French Embassy concerning the abrogation of American capitulatory rights in French Morocco the French Government has raised the question of the possible abrogation by this Government of its rights under the Act of Algeciras.

The French Government proposes that, in return for the abrogation by the United States of that Act in relation to French Morocco, by which the United States is assured of the open door in that country, the most complete guarantees will be given American commercial interests in French Morocco for a period of at least thirty years.

In view of the many disputes which have arisen between the American and French Governments in the past over the application of the principle of the open door in French Morocco, I am of the opinion that the acceptance of this revised basis of negotiations would be in the interest of this Government. I enclose a memorandum on the subject in the event you may care to consider the matter in more detail.

The French Embassy has requested us to consider this proposal as ultra-confidential.

Faithfully yours,

Cordell Hull
[Enclosure]

Memorandum by Mr. J. Rives Childs of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs

Following the conclusion of the Montreux Convention by which this Government agreed to relinquish its extraterritorial rights in Egypt, [Page 661] the French Government approached the United States with regard to similar action with respect to the like rights exercised by this Government in French Morocco. The extraterritorial rights of the capitulatory powers in French Morocco were, with the exception of those enjoyed by the United States and Great Britain, renounced at the beginning of or during the World War. In 1916 [1917] when this Government recognized the French protectorate over Morocco,34 it was agreed to enter into negotiations subsequently with the French Government for the abrogation of our extraterritorial rights in that country. In accordance with this obligation and following the relinquishment by Great Britain as of January 1, 1938 of its extraterritorial rights in the French zone of Morocco, discussions were began between this Government and the French Government looking to the negotiation of new treaties defining the rights of American nationals, ships, and goods incident to the abrogation of the extraterritorial rights enjoyed by us.

The rights of the United States in Morocco generally are defined in the following instruments:

(1)
Treaty of Friendship concluded in 1836 with the Sultan of Morocco which is subject to denunciation upon one year’s notice;
(2)
Multilateral Convention of Madrid of 1880, with no terminable date, defining the right of protection in Morocco; and
(3)
General Act of the International Conference at Algeciras signed April 7, 1906, with no terminable date.

The Act of Algeciras is of particular importance as it affirms the principle of the open door in Morocco.

In the present negotiations the French Government has been disposed to grant this Government guarantees equivalent to those recently accorded Great Britain. Accordingly the French Government has been prepared to grant adequate guarantees for American nationals and ships but it has been unwilling to accord guarantees with respect to goods for a period longer than seven years. Moreover, the French Government, while admitting its obligation under the Act of Algeciras to maintain the open door in Morocco, refuses to reaffirm or reinterpret that principle in any new treaty with any power.

The French position is that the principle of the open door in Morocco was forced upon France at the beginning of this century under the threat of war by Germany. It is represented that the development of the North African Coast comprising Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco has become a matter of vital necessity to France if that [Page 662] country is to maintain its position as a world power. Algeria is a part of metropolitan France and no treaty obligations now stand in the way of the full exercise by France of its protectorate over Tunisia. The treaty obligations contracted by France in relation to French Morocco under the Act of Algeciras before the establishment of a French protectorate over that country, however, have made impossible the binding of Morocco to France in the manner in which Algeria and Tunisia are now bound to France.

The difficulties in our present negotiations with the French have been further complicated by reason of our nonadherence to the Franco-German Accord of 1911 concerning Morocco to which all other powers signatory of the Act of Algeciras have adhered. That accord granted France a certain liberty of action in respect to the application of the Act of Algeciras. France has found it impossible to exercise that liberty, however, without violating our treaty rights.

In view of these difficulties and in view of the fact which has become apparent during our negotiations that any new treaty instruments considered in conjunction with the Act of Algeciras, would give rise to endless disputes with the French authorities, the French Government has proposed an alternative basis for our negotiations. The French propose that in return for the abrogation by this Government in French Morocco of all of its rights under the Act of Algeciras, including the principle of the open door, the French Government would be prepared to grant us the most explicit and binding guarantees in respect of the treatment of our particular economic interests in French Morocco for a period of at least thirty years. The treaty would be framed, however, with a view to giving France the same general economic liberty of action, outside of our particular economic interests, which that Government has enjoyed in the political sphere in French Morocco since 1912. At the end of thirty years France would possess both complete economic as well as political liberty of action in French Morocco.