The Washington times., 1915-12-25
SEES RUIN OF ALLIES
=. SHOULD EGYPT FALL
Dutch Observers View Of What
Would Happen In Africa II
Germans Succeeded.

An attack on the Suez canal by a
mighty host of Teutons and Turks uri-
der Field Marshal Won der Goltz, II sue
ccssful. would be the beginning of a
campaign that would drive british.
French. Italians. and SpanlardS out of
Northern gfrica. in the opinion Of the
Cairo corresDondent of the Nieuwe Rot
terdarnsche Courant. as expressed In the
following article in that proLTeuton
newspaper and widely reprinted in Ger
many:
"incurabel optimists spd pacihsts feel
sure that, owing to the menaclns OF
the Suez Canal by the solid ranks OF
the central powers. peace Is now In
sight They think England would never
take the chance of a hfe-and-death
struggle for her highway to India, and
hausted Germany the pipe for the big
"This appears improbable to me for
two reasons. In the first place, con-
siderable water will have flowed down
the Nile before the statesmen who rule
on the banks of the Thames become
convinced that the combined forces of
Turks, Germans. Austrians, Hungar-
ians, and Bulgars will ever be able to
advance to the foot Of the Pyramids.
Secondly, no sensible man believes that,
II the German diplomats consider the
possession of Egypt is such big trump
In the present war game, they would
sight Of the promised land. aSd thus
give their opponents time to regain
their strength. And. finally. aIl this talk
about the road to India" the artery
Of British sea power" and similar
phrases in connection with the great
work of the genial de Lesseps, seems
to me to be considerably exaggerated.
Route Much Longer.
II Naturally. we must admit that the
! old route to India around the Cape OF
Good Hope is much longer and that II
requires much more time, coal, and gen
eral cost OF maintenance. But granting
that the way to Asia yia the Mediter-
Tanian and the Red sea were no longer
open to English shiFs, It Is plain rs
day that the British Empire would
know how to overcome the consequences
| of this indisputahle disadvantage much
| quicker and with greater ease than Ger
many, for instance, has been able to dc
in the case of her economic isolation
The travel around Africa would soon be
organized down to the smallest detail.
When England built Up her Lower
In india there was no canal throuGh the
Isthmus OF sinai. And with the mod
ern technical resources at hand, the en-
tire disaster would he limited tn tho
spending of more money, something
which, In these days. when billions are
being played with, would not count fOi
very mucL. Connections with Aus.
tralia. and japan may easily be estab-
lished through the Panama canal. al
least as long as this newest highway
Is not closed by slides. In short the
loss of BNypt would be great disaster
for the allies, but they would by nj
means be ready to conclude peace tC
avoid 1t
'"rhe fall Of the land Of the Pharaohs
would entail other consequences, now.
ever. and although It may seem a little
early to think about these, things move
so rapidly nowadays that II Is well moi
TO delay a consideration of the matter
from that point OF view. Whoever holds
Egypt also possesses the Sudan. Thi:
| Is an axiom that seemed to fail only II
the case of the Mahdl. But we mus
not forget that the reign Of the MAhd
| in Khartorm wns only possible because
Egypt really didn't belong to anybody
neither to the sultan In Co"stantinopl,
| nor to the Rhedive, whose country wal
| occupied; nor to the EnElish. under tht
| iTrcsolute direction Of Gladstone Al
tiOn of the Moslem fanatics was prt al
| end to. And the Bahdi. whose bone
were thrown TO the SURPRISED crOCndile
| by the not OverdeIcnte Kitchener, cotfit
| find no rest even in his grave.
| "These Mohammedan fanatics (anC
their number is legion in Africa, whor,
/ the language Of the Koran has slOWl,
but surely driven out the native dia
lectsl ore. all on the side OF the central
powers at present. 1t is all very wei
| 10 say that tho present holy war 4
! made in Germany This alone is evi
dence that II Is as much stronger thar
the medieval holy wars as othe
articles carrying that label are supeTio
to conpeting, goods. Now it has sys
tom and method. It cannot be denie,
that within fourteen days after an oc
curation Of Cairo bv tic fez and thC
pickelhaube, Enver Pasha could haV
| the Gordon monument in Khartoun
blown up. II 1t pleased him to dof 50
! But, according 10 what we have hear
Of him. he hes no such barbRrous de
sires as his English colleague.
"Mad MulIah" Not Mad.
"The mad Mullah' in the hinterlar,
of Somaliland. who, 1t may be paren
thetically remarked. II not so mad as h
has heen described by the English tn
Sultan Of DaTfur, and all the MOham
medan princes of entire Central Africi
are likely to regard II as the proEe
time for settlement with their Eng
gotten that Slatiu Pasha the ma
! through whom Great Britain pacific
the Sudan, the nero who alone ha
moro influence in Nubia- and Abyssini
than an entire army. Is now lighting 70
the central powers. Tie Is in the Aus
trian ranks on the. IsOnzo, hut he WI
no doubt receive leave TO revisit tn
land where he suffered as a prisonC
for ten years and which he ruled a
an all-poweTful inspector for hftee
| years.
Following this, II may be seen tha
British East Africa might be placed !
q dangerous position. particularly Z