Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-09-17
:UROPE'S ANSWER
TO GAR NICHOLAS
itua!icn Is New More Innamma-
Bile Than It Has Been In
Many Years.
ANGL0-FRENCH CLASH LIKE.
Kitchener Has Sent Back All the
Newspaper Men Who Were
With Him.
ANGL0-FRENCH CLASH LIKE.
FRENCH TROOPS IN HIS PATH
England Seeks To Extend Her Infu.
ence North nud south Through
the Entire Length
of Africa.

T~g
with the nations joining in with the
cars disarmament proposition, Eu-
rope has not been for years so close
TO the verge of general disaster. Dis
cord, death and crime, seem TO have
suddenly burst forth in all parts OF
the globe.
The assassination Of the empress of
Austria is liable to have a far reach
ing effect, while the situations in
Crete and Africa have assumed such
critical aspects today that all name
Of gloomy predictions are made.
Taking up Austria's case first, the
old emperor, Franz Joseph, is a broken
down man. His son was murdered in
q criminal intrigue and his country is
fast going TO pieces, and now his wife,
a charming, lovely woman, is assas-
sinated without reason.
Several times the emperor has been
on the point of abdicating, and this
last blow may be his end. IL has been
Eaid for years that he is to be the last
emperor of the Acknowledgements en-
pire; that at his death or re .irement
the federation surely would dissolve.
What international complications,
such as the disarmament might cause,
no one can foretell. But IL undoubt-
edly sooner or later would bring a
bloody strife between two or more
greedy, avaricious powers, as well as
internal discord between the various
small countries forming the empire,
who have never affiliated nor welded
their interests in common.
Little Crete nearly involved Europe
in hostilities last year, and now again
IS burning like an incendiary's torch.
Saturday the admirals of the powers
sent an %ultimatum to the Turkish gov
crnor, giving him but a few hours
for the disarmament of everybody on
the island, including even the Turk
ish regulars. What may result from
this is beyond even the most diplo-
matte guessing. 1t is simply n case
of hoping for the best and fearing for
the worst.
But the most serious situation has
suddenly developed in Africa, where
the British and Egyptian troops have
won such q tremendous victory over
the dervishes. Even while full details
of the battle are not yet in, comes the
news of a more critical outlook than
before the fall of Omdurman. 1t Is
nothing less than the possibility OF u
conflict between England and France
in the heart of Africa. The var CORE
spondents had just time to wire home
that news had reached Khartoum OF
the presence of Major Marchard of the
French army with 1000 troops at Fa-
shoda, when General Kitchener or
dered every correspondent back to
Cairo Immediately.
Some begged to be allowed to
plunge into Central Africa at their
own risk, while others tried in every
way to obtain permission to remain
with the army in some connection, or
arrange means of communication, but
the Sirdar was obdurate and all the
correspondents were herded together
on a steamer and started back to Cal
TO. None is allowed TO escape until
the city is reached, nor send any news
OF the impending complications. So
what happens in Central Africa for
the next two or three weeks will be
unknown, save for such information
as the Sirdar chooses to send the Brit
ish government.
The situation is exactly the same as
in America at the time of the French
and Indian wars. England seeks to
extend her chain of posts and colonies
north and south through the entire
length Of Africa, from Ciaro to Cape
town, and France is extending her
lines east and west across Africa from
Congo to the east coast, just as she
tried to close in on the English posts
in America $50 years ago, Warnings
have already been exchanged between
the two governments and it looks now
as if the victorious Sirdar intended TO
advance beyond Khartoum and wipe
out the French. Fashada is $50 miles
up the Nile from Khartoum and just
as s~trategical a point as old Fort Du
Quesne.
English gunboats have already
started up the river, ~ostensibly pursu'
ing the Khalifa. Major Marchand's
troops are practically all natives, well
armed and under French officers. They
advanced up the Congo and have o
reached the Nile.
Then, there is the quarreling over
the plumber in China, and all this, witt
the Spanish war just over, is Europe's
answer to the proposition for uni
versal peace.