Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-06
WARS THAT SEEM ENDLESS.
SanGEinary Struggles That Have Been
In Progress for Centuries.

Since the first foreigner in the person of
a Dutchman, landed on the Island of Su-
matra, in 1449 the native AchineSe have
combated the usurping of their land foot
by foot. In the beginning Of the present
century the island came into British hands,
but was soon restored TO Holland. Then
again the Achinese took up arms against
the Dutch invaders. Although when the
Dutch can get the Achinese out in the open
they invariably beat them, the war con-
tinues in a desultory manner today, and
will only end when the last native of SUI
matra has been killed in action The num-
Der of Achinese killed has never been
known, but the war has been a very seri-
Gus drain on the manhood of Holland. and
many of her best soldiers were killed be-
tween the years 1873 and 1879, when the
struggle was very bitter.
Since 1904, when the Persians surrendered
Armenia to Turkey, the numerous sutans
of Turkey have never sheathed their
swords in regard to the former country.
save in the flesh of the inhabitants. True.
every now and again, when matters are
very slow in European politics, some coun-
try becomes righteously indignant, and
concert of Europe is called and note sent
to the sultan. Still the fighting goes
Or rather, the butcherinS.
At the beginning of the present century
Algiers finally passed into the hands Of
France. From that time till the present
the French nation has always kept an
army corps Of not less than 5i.ooa French
troops garriSoned there to fight .e Arabs
who infest the hinteriand and raid the
French possessions at least once year.
Chief among these are the Touaregs. who
fight with one-half of their faces masked,
and tight always to the death or victory.
Never once has Touareg been taken alive
France cannot subdue them. for if beaten
they flee to the desert, where no trained
army can follow them.
The Rffians, who the scourge of Mo-
rocco, resemble the Touaregs, in that they
also take and give no quarter. but. instead
of living in the heart of the Sahara, they
fight from their mountain fortresses and
keep the Sultan of Morocco in continual
dread. To keep his soldiers in good fettle
the sultan every year gives at least three
months fighting to them by picking a
quarrel with one of the feudal holders of
the numerous semi-brigand strongholds
From the day in 1920 when the first Puri-
tan settlers from England landed on Ameri-
can soil intermittent war has been waged
by the whites in the United States against
the original Indian population. Gradually
the Cherokees. Choctaws. Creeks and Sioux
have been driven further and further back,
till today but a comparative few remain.
Yet even now the government deems ii adj
Visable to keep a body of picked troops to
guard the Indian territory, for every now
and again the old scalping spirit breaks out
in some young brave, and dire would be the
result were he not subdued before others
could gather to follow him on the warpath.
The northwest mounted police of Canada
were raised, and are kept, Tor ike pur-
pose: and although their work is not so
arduous that of their American dou-
bies. yet even they are generally busy.
No knows when the first blood feud
began in Corsica. when the first brigand
set up shop. Nor can any one tell when
the last will put up his shutters. Even in
the time of the Romans the inhabitants
were too busy fighting another to care
whether a foreign garrison was left on the
island OF not But not a day goes by with
out several lives being sacrificed in the
cause of some vendetta; and as each life
means the sacrifice in atonement of at
least two more there is today hardly one
Corsican whose life is not wanted by fell
low countTyman, and who, in running
away. is not also chasing some other per-
son.