The Washington herald., 1907-11-03

rule of the half dozen white nations
| among which so much of Asia and Africa
has been divided
England Between Fires.
The present era of white ascendancy "a
Asia and Africa began to count not much
more than a century and a half ago, and
about as long after ali the new world
practically, had been carved up by Eng
land, Spain, France. and Holland. Eng
lands conquest Of India began just I5J
years back. A hundred years later. in
1851. came the horrors of the muuny.
when the natives destroyed some thou
sands Of their hated white conquerOrs.
This insurrection was among the Hin
dus, and they were so severely punished
that they never have dared to try it again
on a big scale. Although Great Britain
almost always has a little fighting job on
hand in India. her greatest campaigns in
the last half century, barring those OF
the BOer war, have been against the Mo-
hammedans and the savages in Africa.
These have all resulted in success for the
British arms, so that to-day Egypt and
the SOudan AS well as Cape Colony and
British South and West Africa, besides
other regions Of the Dark Continent, are
now properly marked red on the map.
But soon after Japans victory over
Russia the Hindus began to be uneasy
and the row between Lords Kitchener
and Curzon. as to which should be boss,
intensified the dissatisfaction. This has
been growing ever since CUrzons retire
ment so that now there is hardly a day
that the cable doesn't bring news Of some
MohammedaHs. who number nearly 63.
000000. as against 207. 900 Hindus. and
about 50.000.051 Buddhists, jams, Sikhs.
&c. have joined in none of the recent
anti-British demonstrations in India
But in Egypt. where British supremacy
has been maintained for the last thirty or
forty years mainly by the sheer force of
one mans personality, the Mohammedans
are showing much uneasiness. This has
been especially true since the retirement
last spring of Lord Cromer, the genius
who upheld Britain's prestige so long.
and to-day the Egyptian situation IS
tenser than il has been since Beresford
won his first laurels at the bOmbardment
of Alexandria and Kitchener his in the
successful campaign against the Sou
danese Mahdi
Should the Mohammedans Of Egypt sue
ceed in communicating their feeling Of
dissatisfaction 10 the Mohammedans Of
India a cOnhagration might arise there
which would sweep the British entirely
out Of their Asiatic possessions.
This has been impossible in the past.
largely because the Hindus, the Moham-
medans. and the people Of the thirteen
or fourteen other chief racial and relig-
ious divisions in India have been played
skillfUlly against one another. They are
decidedly antagonistiC, naturally, and the
fact that while the Hindus are much the
cleverer the MOhammedans are the bet
ter fighters has helped keep the antag-
Onisms alive between them. So has the
circumstance that each group Of people
In India has its own language, and that
there has been no national tongue in
which the various dissatisfied groups
could talk over their alleged grievances
This lack has now disappeared. however:
all educated men of India to-day sneak
the language Of the cOnquering English
race; it was used last year exclusively in
the discussions of the Indian national
congress.
II is easy TO understand why the Eng
lish are doing some hard thinking about
the future of India, and also why the
recent agreement with Russia by which
Persia is divided into spheres of fnfu-
ence, while the status Of Tibet and
Afghanistan IS permanently fixed. was