The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-25

do no harm to men whose ancestors
have been for 5000 years the most spir-
itless of whipped serfs. The bearing of
the native soldiers is good, their eyes
are clear and unshifting, they have the
martial swing and visor. The Cairo
policemen show almost as strongly the
effect of discipline and pride of calling.
SO far as one can see, they are quite
as efficient as the gendarme5 OF Eu-
ropean cities.
Egyptian soldiers don't need to wait
for winter to go campaigning. They
want nothing but high water. Very
soon, however the government will be
more nearly Independent of the big
river. In about two years the railroad
will be pushed on as far as Khartoum
how soon it will go beyond, to meet
Cecil Rhodes projected lines from South
Africa, is conjectural. Even without
the railroad, forced marches can be
made across the desert by the camel
corps.
MAHDISTS NOT HARD TO THRASH.
The only difficulty in this war is
the difficulty of transportation. The
Mahdists are not so hard to thrash
when one gets at them. Ten years ago
they could put into the field well-armed
men by the hundred thousand. Now
the population is reduced by war and
pestilence, by famine and by the muir
derous fanatical punishments of the
Khalifa--who has put whole tribes to
the sword-to less than one fourth what
it was fifteen years ago, incredible as it
may seem. When conquered, the waste
and desolate land must be repeopled by
immigration from below. The Nubians
of the villages and farms welcome the
Egyptian advance. OF the actual fight
ers there are left only the proud Bha-
garas. Their arms are in part old and
ill-repaired, in part new-supplied, as
It is freely asserted in Cairo, by the
French. And they are somewhat short
of ammunition.
Mr.. Stanley may be right in thinking
that, for her own sake, Great Britain
should abandon Egypt after retaking
Ehartoum; but for Egypt itself the
best thing that could happen might be
even a more complete control by either
England or France, with the free con-
sent of the other. Hampered as it has
been in every way, British guidance
has already accomplished much. The
contrast between governmental meth
DDS in Constantinople and Cairo is so
startlingly favorable to the latter as to
make one wish there were some foun-
dation for the recurring but probably
crazy rumors of an Anglo French alli-
| ance.
WHY BRITISH RULE IS DISLIKED.
Nine men out of ten with whom one
talks in Cairo dispute the evidence of
ones senses and declare the British
regime a failure. The real Egyptian
speaks no language but his own, and
doesn't get interviewed. The farmer
likes the English better than the towns
man, particularly if he is old enough
to remember the gay and festive Is
mail. Those who complain are most
likely not Egyptians at ALL but people
who unjustly escape taxation by claim
ing English, French, Italian, or Greek
citizenship, and whom the Egyptian
government wishes to reach. 1t would
tax them tomorrow if Russia and
France would consent. This exemption
of foreign merchants and hotel keepers
from taxation is one of Egypt's gravest
difficulties. 1t is only within a year
that a citizen of a foreign nation could
be arrested for crime there without the
consent of his consul. He is still tried
by his consul, not by the excellent ma
tional courts; it is only a few months
since a murderer escaped even a trial
because he was able to convince his
consul that such step was unneces-
sary.
There are others who dislike English
half-rule even more. They are the ma
tive Pachas, who for the first time are
taxed as heavily as poor men, the
money lenders, who are checked in their
rapacty, and the dragomans, who are
only needed in disorderly country.