attendants and artisans to erect the stove-sheds, etc., started for Mogador.

The Moorish officials assert that no communication was addressed to the native authorities at Morocco or to the Governor or port authorities at Mogador, and that the expedition, disregarding every form of courtesy or official etiquette, proceeded to take possession of the island, and to erect the stoves and sheds which they had brought with them without the permission of the native Government.

The Moorish authorities, both at Mogador and at Morocco, who realized that sooner or later they would be called upon to pay for this expense, a quite unsolicited outlay and activity, were all highly indignant. Whilst most unfortunately the foreign Consuls at Mogador, although they had been duly informed, by their respective legations at Tangier, of the measures to be executed, were also unfavourably disposed, and complained that the sanitary physician, Dr. Cortes, who was in command, did not call upon them, nor solicit their good offices, prior to commencing operations. As a matter of fact, Dr. Cortes, on his arrival at Mogador, was informed that a vessel crowded with returning pilgrims was expected in a few hours, so that he was obliged to remain on the island to hurry all preparations; but, as soon as he was free to do so, he called on the French Consul, who was the doyen of the consular body at Mogador.

These Consuls, it should be explained, are mostly resident merchants, and as such were opposed to the island being used as a lazaretto, fearing that its proximity might prove prejudicial to trade and to the shipping interests generally. This opposition of the Consuls has, indeed, been always an awkward feature in the question, but it is especially to be regretted that the Moorish authorities should have been allowed to utilize it at this critical juncture as a weapon against the Sanitary Council. As to the assertion of the Moorish authorities, that they had not been duly notified, this is absurd in face of the fact that both Dr. Cortes and the President of the Sanitary Council had, before the expedition left Tangier, called on the Sultan's

delegate Minister of Foreign Affairs at Tangier, to whom the object of the expedition had been fully explained, and this delegate Minister, Haj Mohammed Torres, the official medium of communication, himself gave them a letter for the Governor at Mogador.

Notwithstanding these precautions, the Moorish authorities at Mogador, disregarding the instructions received at Tangier concerning the cession of this island as well as the letter from Sid Torres to the Governor, proceeded to remove, by armed force, the material landed at the island, and ordered Dr. Cortes and the employés of the Sanitary Council to withdraw. This outrageous violence and discourtesy to the Sanitary Council, composed, as it will be remembered, of the chiefs of all the foreign diplomatic missions at Tangier, could scarcely have occurred at a more embarrassing moment, as shortly afterwards the outbreak of the bubonic plague at Oporto was announced, and between Portugal and the coast of Morocco there is frequent communication, owing to the fishing boats and other Portuguese sailing craft which visit these ports. The country was thus threatened by a new danger calling for greater vigilance and increased sanitary precautions, at the very moment when the only body competent to protect Morocco from the invasion of this dread disease was, by the stupid and malevolent action of the Moorish authority, deprived of all power to contend with difficulties, to deal with which it would require all and more than all the resources at the command of the foreign representatives.

The plea by which the Moorish Government attempted to justify its subordinates, in a somewhat insolent despatch to the representatives at Tangier, was that the cession of the island as a quarantine station had been a merely temporary or conditional measure, and that the erection there of buildings or other works without prior authorization from the Moorish Government, would constitute a definite occupation, and that the Shereefian Government would resist, if necessary by armed force, any such attempt. The despatch further reminded the foreign Ministers that they

had frequently of late exceeded their powers in other respects, thus adding gravely to the gross offence already offered at Mogador.

It is, perhaps, difficult to exaggerate the importance of this incident, although some of the foreign Ministers, on their return from their summer leave, affect to make light of it, and seem even disposed to justify, to a certain extent, the Moorish authorities by blaming those who remained at their post, and especially the chargés d'affaires who, in the absence of their chiefs, were left to deal with such serious responsibilities, without time or opportunity for prolonged negotiations. It seems, however, to the writer that any considerations which tend to exonerate the Moorish officials only increase the importance of this comminatory incident, and that for the foreign Ministers to tolerate, collectively or individually, such an ignominious fracasso of their official prestige would be a grave indiscretion.

For the moment the Sanitary Council employed the only retaliatory measure by which they might hope to ward off the invasion of the plague, by telegraphing to Jeddah and all suspected ports that any vessels embarking pilgrims or other passengers would be refused admission to all Morocco ports, and fined £5 for each and every passenger whom they might attempt to land.

Thanks to this energetic decision, we have thus far escaped all contact with the sources of contagion.

The essential points to be considered are, first, the urgent necessity for quarantine protection in a country like Morocco, where it would be quite impossible to isolate individual cases or to carry out any house-to-house inspection, owing to Mohammedan customs and the inviolability of domiciles, which absolutely prohibits such precautionary measures; whilst the general indifference or fanatic fatalism. of the natives adds an insuperable difficulty, should the disease be once introduced into towns, like most of those in this country, where the filth of ages is generally allowed to fester with undisturbed carelessness as to the consequences, since the devout Mohammedan argues that if the

plague should break forth, it is God who so wills it, and that to interfere with His decrees would be a blasphemous outrage upon the supernal administration.

It is, in fact, quite wonderful that the intervention or establishment of a European Sanitary Council should ever have been admitted, and, still more, that its extension by delegation to a quasi-municipal organization, composed of resident foreigners and Israelites at Tangier, should also have been more lately tolerated.

In the first instance, indeed, the latter body was presided over by a Moorish delegate, who, however, ultimately withdrew, nor has it since been possible to secure the attendance of any native official. Still, the Hygienic Commission, known to the Moors as the Tindif, is not only allowed to collect a tax on the slaughter-house, which tax is applied to sweeping and paving the streets, and also to building or repairing drains, etc., but the authority of this Commission is generally recognised by the Moorish officials, so that minor police powers are occasionally exercised with the support of the local authority.

The Commission also supplies antidiphtheritic serum, and also vaccine, gratis to the community, and has, moreover, now procured the Yersin serum in case of the appearance of any symptoms of bubonic plague, of which thus far there has been no indication whatever. Besides all this, the Commission pays for the electric lighting of the principal streets and for the interment of dead animals, whose Moorish owners allow them to lie unmolested where they may have fallen.

The reader will therefore realize how important to the mixed community of Tangier and the coast towns of Morocco are the functions exercised, directly or indirectly, by the foreign representatives, either as members of the Sanitary Council or of the Lighthouse Commission, which latter administers the light at Cape Spartello, to the west of Tangier, and the road leading to the lighthouse, a handsome building erected by a French architect at the Sultan's expense, but which is maintained by the following Powers:

Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, Holland, and Sweden and Norway.

When it is remembered that, in addition to their normal diplomatic or political duties, every legation also exercises judiciary functions, its members constituting a tribunal to which the subjects of the respective Powers are amenable, it will be seen how varied and important are the responsibilities and obligations of the Ministers and ConsulsGeneral accredited to the Sultan of Morocco, but who reside in Tangier.

None of these various functions, however, expose the foreign representatives to such harsh and adverse criticism, or constitute, on the other hand, such undeniable proof of their disinterested and unselfish devotion to the public well-being, as those entailed by their position as members of the Sanitary Council, over which each chief of a mission presides in turn for a period of six months. It is therefore earnestly to be desired that some modus vivendi regarding the Mogador lazaretto may be established. The matter at present is in the hands of the Italian Minister, who is now at Morocco City, where he in his turn has gone to present his credentials to the Sultan-somewhat tardily, as Signor Malmusi has now been in charge of the Italian Legation for nearly three years.

Unfortunately, questions of collective or general interests are too frequently sacrificed in favour of the special demands of the legation directly concerned, to which claims each Minister, on his occasional visits to the Court, devotes his utmost energy of persuasion or menace, as the case may be; and as the Mekhazen has learnt by repeated experience that questions which concern merely general interests, entail neither naval demonstrations nor other forms of constructive coercion, whilst, on the other hand, the neglect to satisfy even the least important or most monstrously unjust demands on behalf of the subjects or native protégés of the foreign Powers leads to serious trouble, it naturally follows that questions of the gravest