Arizona republican., 1899-12-26
MENELIK AND GREAT BRITAIN
The Abyssinian Claims Upon the
 White Nile.


 patches report that in Great Britain it is generally believed that Menelik. the take advantage of the TransvaaI cam paign to declare war against Eng land" The Daily Mail, of London, said lately that "Menelik was advanc- thousand men, armed with rifles and numerous train of artillery. The fears of The Mail and it's London con- temporaries were somewhat chimerical then, but they are not so to the same extent since the British reverses in South Africa, and a few lines about the claims of the Ethiopian sovereign and the strength of his army may not be out If place.
 Menelik's objective in making any demonstration of a military character just at present would be to force a de- finite boundary settlement between Abyssinia and the Anglo-Egyptian ter ritory. Such settlement might sur render to the negus a large portion of that Bahr-el-Ghaza1 province which the French possessed until their com mandant Marchand, was ordered by the Paris cabinet to abandon Fashcda. It is known that the negus rendered royal and lavish hospitality to the dis couraged commandant and his dis heartened soldiers, and that he sided with the French as against the English, temporary conquerors of Abyssinia after the Magdala victory and the sui eide of the Negus Theodoros. Menelik has proclaimed, besides, his intention of going to the Paris exposition
 The question of the frontier settle ment was discussed last year at Addis Abeba, where ME. Rennel-ROd, first secretary of the British diplomatic agency at Cairo, went to deliver mag nificent presents to the negus and con ciliate him. The kings of Ethiopia have claimed the suzerainty of the terri tories extending northward as far as Nubia, southward to Mombasa and westward to the White Nile. Menelik pretends to be the owner of the right bank of that river from the fourteenth to the second degree of latitude, just opposite Fashoda. He reiterated these pretensions as early as 1891 in a diplo- matic note addressed to all European powers, and the contents of which were identical with the claims he dis cussed later with the Anglo-Egyptian envoy, MT. Rennel-Rod.
 The famous scheme of Cecil Rhodes of a Cape to Cairo railroad, or. rather the plan of a British empire extend- ing without any break from the Medi- terranean to Cape Town, would be spoiled if Menelik finally succeeded in planting the Abyssinian flag over point on the White Nile. It is highly improbable that Great Britain, after having chased away the French from Fashoda and the impossible swamps on the left bank of the Egyptian river, would allow Abyssinia to deprive her of the free passage which is assured to her if the Philippians do not occupy the right bank of the Nile.
 This was so evident that before the Transvaal difficulties England was convinced of the impossibility of avoid ing a conflict with Abyssinia, and plan of campaign had been discussed It was to be of an aggressive charac- ter, and looked to a conquest of Ethio- plan territory. Things look differently now Menelilz may be the aggressor, or, rather, the invader, if he is troubled in his present occupation of what he claims to be his own. Not satisfied with the territorial rights which were attributed to him by old parchments discovered lately in the library at Lis bon, he has realized the effective occu- patton required by a clause in the treaty of Belin, of which he was one of the signers, and he has sent troops to occupy the countries which he claims as his own.