Trumped Up Issue

Tangier, the chief port of Morocco, an international city at once quaint and modern, and strategically important because directly opposite the British base at Gibraltar, became once again last week the subject of contention among the nations. Dictator Premier Primo de Rivera of Spain set the pot of contention a-bubbling by despatching to Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U. S., a declaration that the control of Tangier by Spain is necessary to prevent the importation of contraband munitions by Moroccans rebellious against the regime of Spain in Spanish Morocco. The Powers to whom this declaration was despatched, are, of course, signatories in whole or in part* to the Act of Algeciras (1906), delimiting the foreign spheres of influence in Morocco. By the supplemental Franco-British-Spanish Convention of 1923, the permanent neutrality of Tangier has been established and the city placed under the control of an international commission whose members are the eight local consular officers of the Powers adherent to the Act of Algeciras. Therefore, the Spanish declaration of last week re-opened on a trumped-up issue a question long ago adjusted mutually by the Powers, and stirred again many always delicate issues. For example, Britain has never been willing that any one Continental power should dominate Tangier lest it be fortified into a menace to the route to India. No one believed last week that Dictator Premier Primo de Rivera would achieve the momentous concession from the Powers which he appeared to seek. Statesmen winked an eye and remarked that the Dictator was only trying to stir up sufficient trouble to enable him to demand a permanent League Council seat for Spain as the price of being good.

* The U. S. signed only a supplemental clause.