The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-23
SOMALILAND.
Difficulties Which the British Troops
Have to Encounter.


London Spectator.
Our difficulties i'm Somallland constitute
most annoying piece of business. Nobody
wants Somaliland. or would give SOW
ereign for it in fee simple; yet here we are
pledged to q petty war which may cost
millions in money and hundreds of good
English and Sil.n lives, with nothing TO
gain and liability TO be compelled TO an
mex another desert province which can
never pay expenses, or police itself. or be
free from the risk of dangerous and costly
surprises. The thing began in a natural
way enough When we took Alden and
made 1t an important post the place
which we once heard described as "a bit
of the floor of the Internal regions thrown
up to show us what they looked like'-pro-
duced nothing whatever, either TO eat or
drink. In our people. however, obstinacy
develops resource. The water difficulty,
which for a moment seemed fnsuperabie,
was overcome by distllation. and the food
difficulty by buying supplies from the coast
tribes of the opposite Somali country, TO
whom British appetites appeared source
of wealth untold Alden was provisioned
sufficiently, and we were much obliged
TO the coast tribes and a little afraid or
their striking, we scattered promises of
protection against the universe broadcast.
Now tn" promises have to be kept.
Out Of the depths of the Somali Hinter-
land appears able Mussulman with a
gift for preaching and organizing, and an
ambition which. like that of all Mussulman
religious leaders, has limits except the
air and the ocean. His real objective. ii is
believed, Is Abyssinia, which, from its his
tory and it's situation. is a permanent irri-
gather force the Mullah attacked tribe aft.
er tribe, absorbing each as he defeated it.
and at last began marrying our own friend
lies" They appealed to US for help, and, of
live in those regions on the belief inspired
| by our promises; but il was given in the
inept way in which We commence all our
never-ending military undertakings Moth
ing can convince our foreign or our war Of
| flee that African Mussulmans are not saw
ages all through. but singularly brave
voked regard life as Of no consequence, and
who throw up with a curious frequency,
probably caused by the practical equality
which Islam maintains among believers.
men able to raise armies, who would, il
/ they could have successors like themselves,
| found strong military empires.
| The idea Is that any force will do against
+! savages, and We send. therefore, against a
| chieftain like the Mullah, to whom the
| smallest victory brings swarms of allies, q
| force hardly sufficient for reconnaissance
and composed of men of all colors except
| white; we neglect to provide transport re-
| Inducements; and we disperse the strength
we have over the face of a country where
the wells are fifty or hundred miles apart
steel tubes employed in the Abyssiniar
| campaign, which will draw water from the
! depths even in desert; and then we march
| about hunting for an enemy who, knowing
| the country and being utterly careless how
| many men he drops en- route, can march
| two miles to our one. He on his side knows
perfectly well who and where his pursuer.
| are, and that his chance is to cut of de
tachments, which accordingly he tries Il
| do.
Very often he fails, for men are as
| brave as his, they know they must win OF
| perish and they have aid both from sciencs
| and from discipline, but every. now and
| then he succeeds, and a detachment, with
| officers more valuable to us than the whole
country they are traversing, is wiped out
| This is a disaster big or little, and the
whole continent clasps it's hands and pre-
| diets a bursting up of the "overgrown pow
| err which has become so UNANIMOUSLY rich
| Great Britain, however, takes the new.
| phlegmatically, because she has silen
contract with her government that she II
| always to win in the end; but then tina
contract implies a larger expedition, NOR,
| transports, more lives given to the enem,
| and the hospitals, and expenditure in riv
| ers. We are never to stay beaten, and II
| the long run we never do stay, but the pre-
| liminary process Of waiting for disaste
| to wake us up, which is perpetually repeat
| ing itself, is most wasteful. 1t frequent,
| brings us nOthing-as ii will in Somalilant
and it always interferes with other anS
more important plans.