My Dear Herbert,
I write to inform you that tensions have once again arisen in Morocco. You may recall that in 1905 the Kaiser visited Tangier, and like usual overplayed his part by riding through the streets on a white horse accompanied by military bands and Moroccan troops. Whilst on the visit he announced that Germany supported an independent Morocco, and then called for an international conference to discuss the future of this situation. In 1906 the meeting was held at Algeciras, where the outcome was that France gained control of the Moroccan police as only Austria – Hungary and Morocco supported Germany, whereas Britain and Russia both supported France. Furthermore, the Entente Cordiale was also strengthened after this incident, which meant Germany’s objectives were not completed.
As you are aware, our allies the French have been asked to assist the Sultan of Morocco to help put down an uprising which broke out in Fez. Characteristically, Germany opposed the French action, and did this by sending a gunboat to the port of Agadir to protect German interests. The use of a gunboat was yet another example of over reaction by Germany, however due to our on-going naval race we had no choice but to take sides with France –especially if the Germans were planning to build an Atlantic naval base to challenge our naval base at Gibraltar.
I personally believe that Germany is deliberately being aggressive due to the humiliation they felt after simply receiving some marshland in the French Congo after the crisis in Agadir. Germany is now desperate to prove a point to the rest of Europe that if there was any future crisis in which German