St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-05
ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR ITALY.

presentation of the claim Of the state.
ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR ITALY.
When the colonizing fever, that had
been burning in the veins of other
European nations, infected Italy, there
was very little available ground left in
Africa for her to plant her colonists on
under the thin veil Of a protectorate
| over the barbarous or semi-civilized
natives. The English, Portuguese,
French and Belgians had taken first
choice and swelled their territorial pos
sessions by conquests and protecto-
rates over the native tribes, who, how
ever courageous, had not the intelli-
gence to make their force efficient nor
the means to obtain the armament
needed to cope with their invaders.
England had assumed, after an ex-
pensive and not wholly successful war,
paper dominion over Abyssinia, held
by precarious tenure and promising
infinite trouble and expense for the
fore, that, when Italy felt it incumbent
to aid in carrying civilization and re-
ligion into the dark continent, England
secretly consented to endow her with
her rights, title and property in that
rugged region, rugged in it's topog-
raphy and its people, and transferred
Massowah and it's adjacent territory to
the mistress Of the Adriatic.
It was bad selection for Italy. She
should have been suspicious Of assum-
Ing control that England was so will
ing to relinquish. It has not been the
habit Of that country to let go any,
thing that was good or could be cheap
ly held. But Italy rushed impetuously
into what she has found to be the
largest undertaking in her history, and
one whose success Is by no means sure.
Two armies have been nearly annihi-
lated already, and Rome howls over the
latest and most humiliating defeat 1t
Is with no Cetewayo or Lobengula
that Italy has to deal. IT is with no
tribe of savages armed with bows and
spears that she has to contest OF all
the tribes that have composed what is
known as Abyssinia the Shoans are the
most capable. intelligent, rugged and
warlilke. They trace their ancestry to
the Bedouin Arabs, though their re-
ligion is a medley of the Jewish, the
Greek and the Mohammedan faiths
Religion has not restrained them from
warfare, as it has not other nations
with great pretensions; and their his
tory Is one long story of tribal fights,
revolutions and resistance of Moham-
medan incursions. In addition to this
training they inhabit a country that
has been tossed by the convulsions of
nature into mountain ranges with mar
row passes easily held, rough, rug
ged country, poorly adapted to the
maneuvers of trained troops and we'll
suited to guerrilla warfare. To these
mountain Businesses the Abyssinians
have always retreated, whether in their
internecine wars or when pressed by a
foreign foe, and it has been found i'm
possible to dislodge them. 1t was in
these narrow defiles that the Italian
army met severe repulse short time
ago, and it was down the sides of
another that the dusky hordes poured
on the forces of Gen. Baratieria a few
days ago.
Recently King Menelik was said to
be seeking the intervention or Russia
to secure a treaty of peace with the
Italians. Russian interests in Abys-
similarity of religions has facilitated
friendly relations. 1t was a Russian
officer who commanded MeneIik' S
forces when the former defeat was in
ficted on the Italians. Later advices
were that the dervishes from the Sou
dan had enlisted themselves with the
Abyssinians against the invader, and
the tactics employed against the col
umns of Baratieria recall those of the
Mahdi against the English in their
Soudanese expeditions. If the contest
were had on ground where troops
could be maneuvered, it is likely that
the $4,000 we'll armed and drilled Ital-
ians would be able to cope with the
$4,000 Abyssinians and their allies;
but in a country like that where the
contests have taken place it is not a
question of numbers, but Of position
and mere numbers cannot avail when
cooped up in narrow defiles, surround
ed by a superior force, fighting on Sc
lected ground and against attenuated
lines. Italian pride is stirred, and
chagrin adds its spur, and it is prob
able that a strenuous effort will be
made to subjugate the Abyssinians
but the war will be long and terribly
costly one both in money and lives. and
the result is by no>means certain. That
such an enterprise should be l.SsSe~-