Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-17
ENGLAND IN SOUDAN
Racial Conditions in That Vast
African Country.
THE MOROCCAN QUESTION
Labor Party's 0ratorical Leaders in
Commons.
SOME POLITICAL OBSERVATIONS
International Art Exhibition in Two
Sections This Year-Live Pigeon
Shooting Yielding to Sentiment.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, February 26. 1905.
The destruction of a French post IN the
SoudaD reported TO-DAY makes 1t fairly
certain that the British disaster near Soko-
to was not an incident In any mere local
rising. The nearest point the French
frontier is at least $50 miles distant from
| Sokoto, and, though the boundary repre-
sents no racial division, a movement which
affects French and English alike at points
one or two hundred miles apart must be due
to some widespread political discomfort.
A new mahdi, 1t is said has arisen in the
western Soudan, and there is reason to be-
lieve that the time is ripe for another
movement like that which overthrow the
Egyptian empire in the eastern Soudan
twenty-five years ago. 1t Is true that the
old Egyptian rule in the Soudan was an
unmitigated curse, while the English and
French In the western Soudan have proba-
bly, improved the wellbeing of the ma tority
of their subjects. But the Egyptians, after
ALL were Mahometans, and the French and
English are not. A second mahdi might
have to play on a different string from the
nrst, but the tune might be just as terri
Bile. The political distinctions between the
Egyptian Soudan, Nigeria and the French
Soudan correspond to no reality.
The Soudan is best thought of as one vast
to khantoum on the east and from Kano
on the south TO Morocco, Algeria and Trip
oil on the north. There is constant commu-
nication over the whole of this vast district.
Placards issued by the mahdl who over
threw Egyptian rule In the eastern Soudan
were found posted in a street of Bida 1900
miles west of Khartoum and when Lord
Kitchener began his reconquest of the Sou
dan the khalifa urged the Sultan of Sokoto
to make a diversion in his favor by driving
the Christians out of Nigeria The pressure
on this fanatical Mahometan population IT
the Soudan has now for many years been
kept up from several sides at once-from the
Egyptian Soudan on the east, from the Med
iterranean downward by France and from
the Gulf of Guinea upward through Nigeria
by England
common grievance, and If counterstroke
were attempted the only wonder would
be that 1t had been delayed so long The
present movement may not turn out to be
so serious, but, whether it is or not a
general rising of the Mahometan tribes
In the Soudan must always be accounted
one or the permanent dangers to the Anglo
French settlement IN North Africa It
would not be in the least fanciful to sus-
pect some connection between the rising
in sokoto and the conference of Algeciras.
*.
Some time ago the Paris Matin in a series
of articles on the Morocco question COM
mitted Itself to the statement that Great
Britain, through the mouth of Lord Lsps-
downe had promised that In the event of
war between Germany and France to land
10000 men in Schleswig-H ols tein-though
where this enormous force of British
troops was to come from was left to the
imagination of the French journals read
AS matter of fact, the German gov
eminent received an official assurance from
London that the statement was wholly un-
An1 ht,t hat = ,Nt A,1,
sticking in the minds of the German pub
lie and claiming the attention of the strate-
gists OF the great general stan as an aca-
demic problem worth considering 1t is
now interesting, therefore, to hear that
the annual German army maneuvers are
to be held this autumn in Scheswig- Hol-
stein. 1t may be a mere coincidence but
on the other hand, 1t may also be a con-
sequence.
The plan of operations is to be based
on the suppositton that a foreign army
Shas effected a landing at one or more
points In the proYince-which, by the way
is the empress own native province-with
the view OF selling the Kaiser William
canal, and thus preventing the passage
of the German fleet between the North
sea and the Baltic. AS matter of fact
II a British force In alliance with the
French army were really to land in the
Elbe Duchies the canal IN question would
probably be its main objective, so that the
maneuvers of next September ought really
to prove more interesting and instructive
to foreign armies than to the Germans
themselves. In 1870 the French found 1t
quite out of the question to execute such
q maneuver in the rear of the Germans,
for the simple reason that the land VIC
tories of the latter put the French fleet
altogether out of action, through the he
cessity of all It's best men and guns being
withdrawn from the sea to help in the de-
Tense of Paris; and the French had not
even warships enough to escort an expe-
dition to the northern shores of their enc
mics.
Such a peculiar situation is never likely
to recur, and that is why the Germans
must provide for the contingency of an
attempt to land a force, French or other.
in Schleswlg Holstein. But that is a con-
tingency which to all appearance is very
remote. and will certainly not arise in
connection with the present phase of the
Moroccan question. AS NJ. Cornely says in
the Steele: There will not be war. For
one thing, country which has waited
thirty five years-and viii wait thirty-.ive
more-to go to war about Alsace-I orraine
will not go to war about Morocco"
Nothing has impressed the members Of
the house during the first week of the
sion so much as the fact that the new
labor party has brought to the house OF
commons remarkable oratorical gifts Mr..