ABSTRACT
Morocco had for a long time been a source of growing anxiety and contention to European diplomacy, but its independence had never hitherto been seriously threatened. The two Governments also agreed to maintain in Morocco and Egypt respectively, at first for a period of thirty years, the principles of commercial equality and equal taxation as between the different nationals. If, however, the Morocco convention appeared to show France as the better bargainer, the series of Anglo-French territorial agreements as a whole conferred upon Great Britain very substantial advantages. An earlier Foreign Secretary, Lord Rosebery, asserted at the time that "no more one-sided agreement was ever concluded between two Powers at peace with each other". Lord Rosebery called attention to a more serious aspect of the Morocco agreement when he said that it committed Great Britain to "the unwritten liabilities of the Continental system", therein speaking more truly than he knew at the time.
