THE REOCCUPATION OF NORTHERN AFRICA 289 
the Sultan took hope afresh; and for a tim= the beautiful 
fabric which the French had been so carefully constructing 
threatened to fall to pieces at the moment of its completion. 
Germany had not been consulted in the arrangement of 
the Franco-British-Spanish treaties concerning northern 
Africa, and she felt that these agreements did not contain a 
sufficient guaranty that the commercial rights of her citizens 
in Morocco would be respected. On March 31, 1905, while 
engaged in a Mediterranean cruise, Kaiser Wilhelm suddenly 
appeared off Tangier and sent a message of friendship to the 
Sultan at Fez, through his uncle Moulai Abd-el-Malek, in 
which he assured Abd-el-Aziz of his support and announced 
that he would do all in his power to safeguard the interests of 
Germany in Morocco.! 
Through the influence of the German minister to Morocco, 
the Sultan was led to demand, in May, that the question of 
reforms in his domains should be submitted to a conference 
of those states which had participated in the treaty of 
Madrid in 1880, which had established afresh the policy of 
the “Open Door” in Moroccan commercial affairs. This 
was in direct opposition to the plan of France and a blow at 
the Franco-British entente of 1904. M. Delcassé refused to 
admit that any other power, except Spain and the French 
Republic, had a right to participate in the proposed inter- 
vention in Morocco; and a spirited correspondence ensued 
between the Foreign Offices of Berlin and Paris. At length, 
Germany, putting the matter in the form of an ultimatum, 
demanded either the resignation of M. Delcassé and the 
appeal to a general conference or war. France, which had 
maintained a dignified attitude throughout the controversy, 
agreed June 6 to the dismissal of Delcassé and on July 8 to 
the calling of a European congress, on condition that the 
! French Yellow Book, A | ffaires du Maroc, 1905-06, pt. 11, no. 234; Ger- 
man Weiss Buch, 1905-06, Morocco Correspondence.