ry
machine for more than forty years. As the time approached for the blow
she intended to strike, she found it difficult to conceal her purposes.
Noises from the armed camp--bayings of the dogs of war--occasionally
stirred the sleeping world; an awakening almost occurred over what is
known as the Morocco incident.

On account of the weakness of the Moroccan government, intervention by
foreign powers had been frequent. Because of the heavy investment of
French capital and because the prevailing anarchy in Morocco threatened
her interests in Algeria, France came to be regarded as having special
interests in Morocco. In 1904 she gained the assent of Britain and the
cooperation of Spain in her policy. Germany made no protest; in fact,
the German Chancellor, von Bulow, declared that Germany was not
specially concerned with Moroccan affairs. But in 1905 Germany demanded
a reconsideration of the entire question.

France was forced against the will of her minister of foreign affairs,
Delcasse, to attend a conference at Algeciras. That conference discussed
placing Morocco under international control, but because France was the
only power capable of dealing with the anarchy in the country, she was
left in charge, subject to certain Spanish rights, and allowed to
continue her work. The Germans again declared that they had no political
interests in Morocco.

In 1909, Germany openly recognized the political interests of France in
Morocco. In 1911 France was compelled by disorders in the country to
penetrate farther into the interior. Germany under the pretext that her
merchants were not getting fair treatment in Morocco, reopened the
entire question and sent her gunboat Panther, to Agadir on the west
coast of Africa, as if to establish a port there, although she had no
interests in that part of the country. France protested vigorously and
Britain supported her.

Matters came very close to war. But Germany was not yet ready to force
the issue. Her action had been simply a pretext to find out the extent
to which England and France were ready to make common cause. She
recalled her gunboat and as a concession to obtain peace, was permitted
to acquire some territory in the French Congo country. But German
newspapers and German political utterances showed much bitterness.
Growling and snarling grew apace in Germany, and to those who made a
close study of the situation it became evident that Germany sooner or
later intended to launch