Evening star., 1908-01-11

one said to the Englishman
who boasted that the sun never
81 set on John Bulls possession?
1t was that the sun did not
dare to set for fear the old pirate might
steal something more
AS il is now the English own countries
In nearly every part of the globe. They
have more land in North America than
we have They have recently added to
their African colonies, so that they now
own more than one-third of that conti-
nent. and they are slowly and surely
gathering in everything else that lies
loose One of their latest acquisitions is
Arabia They now practically control the
whole of it. They have the Sinai peninsula,
through their possession of Egypt. and
they can control that part of Arabia
along the Red sea through the ports
which they are building on the opposite
coast. They have entered into the closest
of relations with the Sultan OF oman
and they have two uncroWned kings In
the persons of certain of their political
residents and consuls general, who con-
troll the whole of eastern and southern
Arabia. The first of these is stationed at
Bushire, in Persia. but he has made
treaties with the various tribes along the
Arabian side of the Persian gulf. Which
give the English the trade of that region;
and the same is true as to the tribes on
southern Arabia, who are controlled by
the British resident here at Alden. These
two consuls general have established post
offices and postal routes through their re-
spective spheres of influence, and they
control not only the mails. but money
matters as well. They are working in
connection with India, and the moneys
used are rupees and annas. If difficulties
arise between the Arabs and Persians,
they are brought to the English resident
at BuShire and if between the tribes of
southern Arabia, they are brought to
Alden for adjustment.
Arabia to Have Railroads.
At the same time, the English are con-
sidering the development of the peninsula.
They have proposed to build pilgrimage
railway from Jeddah. on the Red sea OPP
posite Port Sudan, to take the great army
of Mohammedan worshippers inland to
Mecca This would connect with their
new railroad which now crosses the
Nubian desert from Suakim to the cape
to Cairo route. and would open up an
immense passenger traffic from central
Africa and upper Egypt during the pill
grimage season. If the English are not
granted the concession for that road it
will probably be built by the Mohamme-
dams themselves. and in any event it will
be more or less under British control, and
be feeder for the Egyptian railway sys-
tenn
Another railroad project is to run line
from Alden into Yemen. The latter prov
ince is one of the richest of Arabia. 1t
has a good rainfall and is noted for its
coffee and grain and fruits of various
kinds. The idea is to run the line from
Alden almost directly northward to Sana,
one of the chieef cities of Yemen and an
important commercial center. The road
will make that town the capital of west
ern and southern Arabia.
A third and still more ambitious project
Is to build a railroad across the northern
part of the peninsula, making thereby a
short cut to India and Persia and to the
rich valley of the Euphrates, at the head
of the Persian gulf The present plan
is to start the road at Port Said and go
eastward across the peninsula to Busra.
on the Euphrates. The most of the way
will be right through the desert, and the
distance altogether about 1000 miles. 1
understand that the route is a feasible
one. and the probability is that the eff
forts the Germans are now making to
reach the Persian gulf may cause the
British to wake up and adopt it,
The Arabian Peninsula.
As to Arabia itself. doubt whether 1t
will ever furnish a large traffic for rail-
roads. There are certain provinces. such
as Yemen, Oman and the Valley of Meso-
potamia, which are fairly we'll populated,
but the whole peninsula has altogether
not more than five millions. and these are
scattered over territory one-third as
large as the whole United States There
are not score of towns of any size in
all Arabia. and you can count the
cities on your fingers. The most of
the country is like that about Alden. con-
sisting of bleak. bare and rocky desert,
with only a collection of black tents or
thatched huts to break the monotony and
with trackless sands reaching off into the
distance. And still Arabia has a coast line
1000 miles longer than the distance be-
tween New York and San Francisco. 1t
measures about 1.500 miles from north to
south and / 100 miles from east to west.
Almost the whole of the United States
east of the Mississippi could be crowded
inside it's borders. and considerable part
of it is still unexplored by white men. 1t
is a mountainous country. 1t has peaks