Valdez daily prospector., 1915-01-28
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1915.
THE INTERNATIONAL "coP."


 grim announcement made in London when the Porte yielded to German pressure and joined the Teutonic AL liance, Great Britain, of course, IS doing the carving, and Great Britain herself is the chief beneficiary of Turkeys suicide"
 The first big slice of Moslem ter ritory is nothing less than Egypt, including the Sudan all the way up the Nile to Lake Victoria Nyanza. There the newly acquired province connects with British East Africa, leaving nothing but the German col ony of East Africa intervening be- tween it and British Central and South African possessions. That gap may disappear before the war ends.
 The Egyptian accession is one that appeals to the imagination. At one stroke-not of the sword, but of the pen-Britain gains 100000 square miles to add to her other 13,000,00O miles of empire, and robs the Turk ish Sultan of 14OOO,000 subjects.
 Most of the land, of course, is un- mitigated and eternally hopeless des- ert. But stretching through those in- terminable wastes of yellow sand like a green ribbon is the life-giving Nile with it's border of ever-rejuvenated soil, land that has been cultivated for possibly 10000 years-since long be- fore the days of recorded history and is today as productive as ever. On that green strip the size of Mary land more than 100000 people live by agriculture alone, producing thirty bushels of wheat to the acre and a heavier cotton yield than our own South, with two or three crops a year.
 The actual change of government is slight one, for Britain has long exercised actual control of Egypt, while acknowledging a nominal Turk ish suzerainty. With the reputation of the Turkish yoke, Khedive Abbas Hilmi is fired from his job and eX- fled. The title he bore is abolished, and Prince Hussein Renal, the Khe- dives uncle, becomes Sultan of Egg ypt under the British crown.
 No doubt the change is for the better Prince Hussein is a man of broad culture and wide administra- tive experience. He served long ago as inspector general of the Delta prov ince and as inspector of Upper and Lower Egypt, and later as minister of public instruction and public works. Among his constructive achievements was the building of the railroad from Cairo to Helwan. lIe has also filled the positions of minis ter of the interior, minister of war, and minister of finance. No other native Egyptian is so well fitted to give his land modern administra- tion and to collaborate with the Eng fish overlords in their imperial pro- gram of development.
 In this case, at least, there is no call for sentimentality over the wrongs of an inferior race. If the white mans burden" is a real thing. never has it been better exemplified than in Egypt.
 When Arabi Pasha rebelled against the Khedive a generation ago, Britain stepped in, in behalf of the nations creditors, and invited France and It. ally to help. When they refused, she tackled the job alone, put down the revolt and then retained control of the country. The people were prac- tically slaves. Taxes were collect ed with a rawhide whip. The nation was bankrupt, the land was largely held by the Khedive, public admin istration and public works were in confusion. In thirty years the Brit ish, by improved irrigation, have add ed 60 per cent. to the cultivated land. They have lowered taxes and straight ened out the national finances. They have established an excellent system of rural credits, while we Americans have just begun to hope for such a system. More than 100000 farmers are protected by five-acre homestead exemption. Great public works have been completed and others are in progress. Civil administration has been reformed. The natives are be. ing constantly intrusted with great