The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1896-03-20
GENERALITIES.
GLIMPSES OF THE DOING OF
THE BUSY WORLD.
sinians-England is Reopening the
soudan War to Help ItaIy-Other Pow
ers Not Very Much Pleased.
Tho African Situation.

| Tho African Situation.
Dispatches from Rome say that me-
| gotiations are in progress for peace be-
tween Italy and the Abyssians and
that when it became generally known
in Italy produced feeling of surprise
amounting to stupor in most quarters.
The conditions, as reported thus far,
fixing the frontier at the .Mared river
line and the prohibition of Notifications
on the frontier are considered humil
iating. The majority of the deputies
oppose the project and strong pressure
will be brought to bear to break off
the negotiations Advices from Mas
sowah say: The negus King MenelilS)
has received 100000 of his troops in
the presence of Maj. Salsa, the Italian
officer who is treating for peace with
! the Abyssinians. The troops marched
in good order and were well armed.
Later the negus showed Mai. Salsa his
quantities of provisions, the Italians
having, some time ago, been under the
belief that the Abyssinians were short
of supplies. In fact, it is said, that
this was one of the reasons which
| prompted Gen. Baratieri to make his
disastrous advance.
| Dispatches from London state that
an advance of English Egyptian troops
has been ordered against the Mahdists
at Dongola, in the Soudan, undoubt-
edly for the purpose of preventing the
dervishes making a descent upon the
Italians at Kassala. The Times has
an editorial discussing the Italian sit
uation and declares that the shock to
European prestige owing to the defeat
of Adowa cannot be neutralized by
| Italy concluding peace with Menelill.
The advance upon Dongola is urgent
in the interest of the British policy.
1t will prepare the way for the adj
vance on Omdurman when the time is
ripe and the SCATTERING of the Mahdist
power at its base. The ultimate OBJ
| jcct of the advance on Dongola is
doubtless the relief of Kassala, whose
capture by the dervishes would be-
come a serious menace to Suakim and
Tokar The possession of the fertile
province of Dopgola is essential for the
protection of Egypt from dervish raids
as besides being convenient to the base
of hostile operations, it furnishes large
| food supplies to the Soudan countries
under the Khalifa's rule.
The is much rejoicing in the British
army at the prospect of another cam
| paign in the Soudan, in spite of past
! experiences with the fierce, tlrelesS
troops of the mahdi, and the recent de-
feat of the Italians by the Abyssinians
All the British officers of the Egyptian
army who have been absent on leave
| have been ordered to return to their
posts Immediately and dispatch from
Cairo announces that the Connaught
rangers have already been ordered to
Wady-Halfa.
The proposed Soudan expedition of
the British government e>cites vast
deal of attention and comment in poll
teal circles and in the press in Berlin.
The German newspapers in comment
ing upon the proposal Egyptian adj
vance to Dongola still show an intense
hatred for England. The National
| Zeitung, for instance, scorns the idea
that England will do anything 20 help
Italy in the straits into which that
unfortunate power has come in Africa,
and hints that England will acquire
kassala as result of the campaign.
Most of the newspapers regard the
Dongola movement as a clever move
on highlands parts to silence clamor
on the Egyptian question, and to offer
an answer to France and all those who
press her for the evacuation of Egypt
for years to come.
France opposes the movement I'M
doubtedly and confederation of this is
| found in the dispatch from Cairo,
| naming as the explicit grounds of her
opposition that no movement in the
| Soudan exists warranting such a cam
| paigli, and that the Khalfa A bdullah,
successor of the late mahdi, Moham-
med Ahmed, and military chief under
him in the former war, has lost all his
authority and has Withdrawn his loyal
| adherents from the Kassala district
A dispatch from St Petersburg says
that King Menelik has asked Russia to
mediate between Abyssinia and Italy
and that Russia has dispatched Baron
! Meyendorff, councillor of the Russian
embassy at Rome, to King Menelik
! with Russia's reply consenting to do
so. 1t is added that the baron also
| takes to the negus an order of st.
| George, high Russian military dec
| grafton.
It is now little over 10 years since the Brit
| ish abandoned Dongola, after the disastrous
campaign OF Lord Woseley for the relief of
| Gordon at khartoum. With that abandonment
the pretense OF Egyptian control of the Soudan
| ended. Egypt proper was delimited from Nu-
| bla near Assouan where q strong British gar
| rison was stationed with an outpost at Wady
Halfa in Nubia, about 200 miles further south
| on the Nile, and near the second or greater
| cataract. About $50 miles still further up the
Nile is Dongola, just above the third cataract.
| In the campaign of 1888 Dongola was the base
| of the British operations against Khartoum.
1t has q citadel and population OF about 10 900.
The advance to reoccupy Dongola is u distinct
renewal of the war against the Soudanese.
| Whether the step has been taken for the sole
purpose of assisting the Italians by calling of
| the besiegers of kaSSala, or is u measure of
precaution against rumored incurson of the
| dervishcs into lower Egypt Is not disclosed.
| Tho result will be the same In either case.
| another SOuUlnpSp
| war on its hands. 1t suggestive that the
British demonstration up the Nile followed
| Immediately the Italian reverse in Abyssiuia.
| as the Italian occupation OF Massowah followed
| the British rcvcrses the Nile in 1885.