Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/138

 134 JEAN JAURES finally to an agreement over the Morocco question in 1911, he made a powerful speech in the Chamber of Deputies, in which he reviewed the past and exposed the selfishness of the financial interests involved in the struggle over Morocco, which had several times brought Europe close to war. "For years," he said, in beginning his speech, "with a persistence which bordered on monotony, I have brought before you and before the country, warnings and objections; I have pointed out that the way in which our policy was developing could only end in crises and deceptions. But many citizens accused me of pessimism and bias."

And yet, as he went on to point out, for eight years there had been "apprehensions, alarms, conflicts," and as many as three times Europe had been brought by this business to the verge of war. Now at last it had ended in France having to give up a portion of the Congo to Germany, and her power had been weakened to check the designs of other nations.

By the secret articles of the treaties of 1904 and 1905 with England and Spain, France had put it out of her power honestly to carry out the provisions of the treaty of Algeciras. Jaurès spoke of the mistake which had been committed "by destroying, with the Act of Algeciras, the only means of expression of an international opinion.