The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-06
ITALY AND ABYsSINIA.

The chief exhibition of European
craftsmanship is colonial develop
ment. Central Africa has been divided
up between the nations of Europe:
England is active pretty much the
world over; France is widening her
Algerian borders and is now paying
homage to the conqueror of the queen
OF Madagascar; Russia is pushing out
in the far east and now the purposes of
Italy in Abyssinia have been made
obvious to the world through the wide
ly circulated defeat of the column Of
Gen Baratieri in one of the mountain
defiles of the ancient kingdom.
1t seemed probable a few years ago,
after the death of King John, that
Abyssinia would resolve into its con-
stituent parts, and that a number Of
independent principalities would arise
upon the ruins of the empire But for.
tunately for national existence the
people were threatened with foreign in
vasion; the common danger united
them under the leadership of Menelek,
King of Shoa, one of the divisions of
the empire. 1t WIS this brave, patri-
otto and enlightened ruler who has SO
conducted the affairs of his country as
to snatch victory from threatened de-
feat.
The Abyssinians are Christians and it
is stated that for many years there has
been a warm and intimate relationship
between the religious heads of the
church in Abyssinia and the magnates
fact that the Car FASTENED to confer
the highest military decorations of the
Russian Empire upon the successful
Menelek is confirmation in part of the
alleged intimacy.
The Abyssinian army is said to num-
Der 100000 men. 1t is equipped with
repeating rifles and is drilled by Eu-
ropean, mostly French and Russian,
officers.
An inspection of map of the region
of the Red Sea will show that Abys-
sinia occupies a mountainous plateau,
the source of many streams that join
TO make 1n the Nile. The inhabitants
are a hardy race of people due to the
excellence and even rigor of their
mountain climate. Lying to the west
ward and northward of Abyssinia is
that great and indefinite region ruled
over by the Mahdi. The Mahdists are
actuated by the most intense religious
enthusiasm They represent perhaps
more fully than any tribes extant the
spirit of Moslem intolerance which
marked the early Caliphs. The British
under-secretary for foreign affairs re-
Gently stated in the house of commons
that the Mahdi and his dervishes could
muster a fighting force of not less
than 100000 men.
These are the two great empires that
begin where Egyptian influence in the
Soudan ceases
Eleven years ago. and Immediately
after the Intellectual attempts of the
English to extend Egyptian control
over the Soudan, there was a change in
English policy. The defeats of Hicks
Pasha and Gordon and the withdrawal
of the Wolseley column from the upper
Nile country lead to this wise deter
mination- In the abandonment of the
Egyptian claims, there was a part of
the shore line of the Red Sea, with
its adjacent territory. called Erytrea,
which seemed to have no powerful
claimant, at least no claimant more
than Abyssinia,. of which it
formed the only outlet seaward.
At this juncture, Italy, ambitious to
follow in the footsteps of the other
powers in the requirement of colonies,
seized the Erytrean port of Massowah,
which it has continued to hold and
garrison The Abyssinians did not
meekly submit to this foreign insult
and many conflicts ensued during
term of years. Finally treaty was
made L is over a difference of opin-
ion in the construction of the terms of
this treaty that the present difficulty
has arisen. Italy construed it very
broadly as giving to the invaders the
control of the foreign relations of Abys-