M. Tardieu's Fourth Lecture

The fourth Hyde lecture was given yesterday afternoon by M. Andre Tardieu on "Le Conflit des Alliances."

The speaker discussed the Morocco crisis of 1905, in which France and Germany's nearly came to open warfare. The trouble started in February, 1905, with Germany's encroachment on the old privileges of France in Moroccan territory. The French representative in Morocco informed the German minister that his country was not satisfied with the condition of affairs; Berlin asked for more specific charges. The trouble quickly became complicated by the interference of the two home governments and the mistakes of M. Delcasse, the French minister of foreign affairs. Emperor William's inflammatory speech in Tangier still further aroused public opinion, so that the prospect of immediate war led Germany to begin actual preparations. At this point, Germany came to her senses, and a request for a conference was sent to France. France insisted on her special privileges in Morocco, which were of long standing, and in the conference which finally settled the difficulty these rights of France were recognized and Germany agreed to withdraw from her position in northern Africa.