The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-14

An that countryside remains as des.
olate today as before its fields first
were cleaned The fellahin still pump
the Nile water into their irrigation
and still till the soil with the same
crude implements as in the days of the
PharaOhs, and still dwell in the same
bare. mud novels that housed them
when RameseS reigned.
The most fruitful soil in the world Is
cursed to this day with the worst land
laws and the mostSunjust system of
taxation. Nowhere else is nature so
bountiful and hardly anywhere else is
man so mean as on those banks OF the
The Egyptian crossroads and the
richness of the earth in the delta Of
the Nile have been fatal gifts, bring
ing down upon Egypt the cupidity of
querors. All the great empires that
have risen in 1000 years OF history
have in turn held her in bondage until
her present rulers are warranted in
saying that the Egyptians do not know
how to govern themselves. No doubt
they have forgotten.
When the English began &c, organize
their army of native troops, they were
disappointed to find the fellahin too
broken spirited, too dull and tame to
hEht for their masters. Then they
called in Turks and AlhanianS to con-
tribute an admiNture of courage. but
these were too spirited and they mutt
MED. Only among the black tribes OF
the Sudan did they succeed in finding
the kind Of recruit that was needed.
These SudaAese We're sayages. to be
sure, but their native independence and
bravery had not yet been crushed.
The Throat of the Empire.
1t is this army Of feIlahin and Su-
danese on which England must now
rely, rather than the sms u British gar
rison. to defend the greatest prize in
the game of war that the empires are
playing. For that trench in the sand
of the Isthmus OF Suez is far more
essential to the success of the Kaiser
than the capture OF the Thames or the
Seine. 1t is the very throat of the
British Empire. and If Germany could
lay her hands upon it. she could choke
London more effectuaIIy than If she
seized the mouth of the Thames
There is another little stream farther
north on the same Mediterranean shore
and itis the second prize in the lottery
of war. This is the Bosphorus, seven
teen miles long, but IL is only less vital
to Russia than the Suez Canal IS to
England.
waterways will decide the fate of en-
pires. and If the struggle is maintained
long enough it's decisive battle is more
likely to be fought there in the Orient
than here in the Occident.
A Hope.
Napoleon's descent upon Egypt. fail
ure though II was. still may have been
Ine most military CAM
paign in many centuries. 1t brought
together the West and the East after
!, 900 years of arrangement
When the blue squares Of France
broke through the Mameluke line by
the wretched village Of Embabeh they
opened the lane by which the West
passed into the sealed East and started
Occidental civilization on its eyentful
journey round the earth, to the banks
of the Ganges, TO the shore of the Sea
of Japan and over the Great Wall of
China Then and there, in the shadow
of Cheops. were initiated the colonial
ism and imperialism which marked
the nineteenth century and which, in
spite OF sordid motives and cruel meth
DDS, may yet prove to be the means of
mankind in the family Of
and Justice.
CCorgnsht. ISIS. By James Morvan.l