Britain recognises the Treaty of Fez

The British chronology of the war records under 19 December 1914 that Great Britain acceded to the Franco-Moroccan treaty of 1912. This was the Treaty of Fez, under which Morocco became a French protectorate. For more than two and a half years London had not formally recognised it. It did so only now, when it needed French consent itself for the protectorate over Egypt, proclaimed the day before.

Morocco for Egypt

The exchange had a long history. In 1904 Britain and France concluded the Entente Cordiale, at the heart of which lay precisely this bargain. France ceased to challenge the British occupation of Egypt, and Britain promised not to hinder the French in Morocco. When Germany tried to undermine this arrangement in successive Moroccan crises (PL), London sided with Paris. On 30 March 1912 Sultan Abd al-Hafid signed at Fez the treaty placing Morocco under French protection. In the autumn of that year the French ceded to Spain a zone in the north of the country, and Tangier was to receive a separate, international status.

The British supported France politically but were in no hurry to recognise the protectorate formally. They had commercial interests of their own in Morocco, and under a treaty with the Sultan of 1856 their consuls tried British subjects. They were particularly concerned about Tangier, which lies opposite Gibraltar. London wanted the city not to fall into the hands of any great power. Talks between Britain, France and Spain on the status of Tangier had been going on in Madrid since 1913 and reached agreement only in November 1914, already in wartime.

Recognition for recognition

The proclamation of the protectorate over Egypt created an opportunity to close the matter. On 20 December 1914 the American chargé d’affaires in Tangier reported to Washington that, after full agreement had quickly been reached between France, Spain and Britain on Tangier, Britain had agreed to recognise the French protectorate in Morocco in return for recognition of the British protectorate in Egypt. The available sources do not make it possible to establish in exactly what form, for instance an exchange of notes or declarations, the two recognitions were made. Their reciprocal nature, however, was beyond doubt.

Recognition of the protectorate did not at once mean the abandonment of British privileges. Spain had renounced consular jurisdiction in the French zone of Morocco as early as March 1914. Britain did so only under a convention with France signed in July 1937. The United States in December 1914 was still withholding recognition of the protectorate until its own affairs in Morocco were settled.

The exchange of December 1914 completed the bargain struck ten years earlier. Britain and France, now allies in the war, mutually sanctioned their gains in North Africa. Neither the Egyptians nor the Moroccans were asked for their opinion.