The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-22
POTENTATE OF AFRICA
MIR. CECIL RHODES IS REGARDED
BY ALL CLASSES WHO SEEK
HIS ADVICE
HIS NEW RAILWAY SCHEME
the Financial End of 1t and With
Excellent Promise of Success
England Undisturbed over Affairs
In Samoa - Novel Suggestion of
an EngIishman.


an EngIishman
LONDON, Jan. 21.-Financial struc-
lures seem to shakeSto their founda-
lions when Mr.. Cecil Rhodes moves.
Peers. cabinet ministers, promoters
With 'Munchausen schemes. duchesses
craving for tips on "Kaffirs" (South
African securities) workingmen with
dreams Of remunerative employment
and bishops. solicitious for souls, haunt
MS motel and beg even for a brief in
terYleW, The popular mind accredits
him with being the potentate of Africa.
The cabinet met yesterday, specially to
discuss Mr.. Rhodes scheme for gov
eminent guarantees of the Cape TO
Cairo railway and telegraphs Mr.
Rhodes. afterwards conferred with Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain, the secretary for
the colonies. and Sir Michael Hicks
Beach, chancellor for the exchequer
Mr.. Rhodes said Eli, 900, 600 would cover
the entire cost of the work, and there
is little doubt he will carry his point
with the government and raise all the
money he needs in the city. Before the
protector can act in the matter there Is
Nformality in the shape of a parlia-
mentary bill. but Rhodes can be count
ed on to drive over the so-called Lit
tie Englanders" who are preparing an
opposition to the scheme, declaring
that Rhodesia Is proving a milestone
and that Mr.. Rhodes wants the gov
eminent to drag him out of hole by
throwing good money after bad by
building a railroad through a desert
land
Notwithstanding newspaper out
bursts against outrages to Englishmen
in the Transvaal continue, by slow
steps, but none the less sure, Great
Britain is Tightening her grip on North
ern Africa. The Egyptian convention.
so far as the Soudan is concerned. is
all that those who urged the Marquis
of Salisbury to declare a protectorate
could have expected. Great Britain
now controls the whole section. She
appoints the governor general and con-
trolls the mixed tribunals. This means
that the governor general is response
Bile only to Downing street and parlia-
ment. The comment of La Liberte, of
Paris, that Great Britain does not an
mex the Soudan-she palms it like a
slight of hand professional" is a
specimen of the spirit in which
France. already incensed with Great
Britain, regards Great Britain's pre-
tense towards absolute sovereignty in
Egypt.
D.
Samoa, commands but little interest
in Great Britain, and the belief seems
to prevail that the dispatches magni-
fly the Importance of the consuls' bat
ties, and Germany will manage grace
fully to disavow the acts of her agent.
A diplomat remarked that Germany Is
filing to the United States the role
Russia has filled in the acts of the
Anglo Saxon-that of conspirator I'M
der a constant war cloud. The papers
consider this as another link in the
Anglo-American understanding which
they are so. .desirious of fostering.
British investors in the philippines
are densely ignorant of American poll
tics. and are hoping that President Nc
Kinley will appoint an Englishman to
govern the islands. They consider 1t
impossible to find in an American a
correct demonstration of the feelings of
the Philippines, and suggest the name
of Gov. Creagh, of British Borneo.
now in England, as being eminentiy
qualified and willing to take the posi-
ton.
Of the situation in the Philippines. Mr..
Ernest Ruffert, the head of a Lombard
street house, who bought large tracts
of land in the Philippines, said to
representative Of the Associated Press:
1.-The lard is useless under present
conditions. We could not plant crops
with the possibility of the natives de-
stroying them over night The United
States would be unable to rule more
than the fringe of islands without an
army of $4,000 men. They might buy
the native leaders, but they would not
stay the revolt, and the United States
must buy them periodically. The end