The Washington times., 1915-12-25
SEES RUIN OF ALLIES
SHOULD EGYPT FALL
Dutch Observers View of What
Would Happen in Africa If
Germans Succeeded.

An attack on the Suez canal by a
mighty host of Teutons and Turks un-
der Field Marshal Won der Goltz, II sue
Cc.sful. would be the BEGINNING of
campaign that would drive british.
French. Italians, and Spaniards out OF
Northern 9frica. in the opinion OF the
Cairo corresDondent of the NieuWe Rot
terdamsche Courant. as expressed In the
following article in that pro-Teuton
newspaper and widely reprinted in Ger
many:
"Incurabel optimists and pacifsts fee,
sure that. owing to the nenaclng ot
the Suez Canal by the solid ranks or
the central powers. peace Is now IN
sight They think England would never
take the chance of life-and death
struggle for her highway to India, and
would rather offer an economically ex-
hausted Germany the pipe for the big
peace pow-wow.
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 rul"
on the banks Of the Thames become
convinced that the combined forces OF
Turks. Germans. Austrians,, Hungar-
ians. and Bugars 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 a big trump
In the present war game. they would
ever advise laying down their caiAds in
sight Of the promised land. aSd thus
give their opponents time to regain
their strength; And finally ~ ~ this talk
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.
i NATURALLY. we must admit that tie
| old route to India around the Cape Of
| Good Hope is much longer and that It
! requires much more time, coal, and gen.
eral cost ot maintenance. Bat granting
| that the way to Asia ia the Mediter
| ranian and the Red sea We're no longer
! open to English shTs. 1t Is plain as
day that the British Empire would
! know how to overcome the consequences
of this indisputalle disadvantag, much
quicker and with greater ease than Ger
! many, for instance, has been able to do
/ in the case of htr economic ISOLATION
! The travel around Africa would soon be
| organized down to the smallest detail.
When England built Up her lower
| In indla there was no canal through the
lsthmus OF Sinai. And with the mod
! ern technical resources at hand the en- .
tire disaster would be limited tn the
! spending of more money. something
which, in these days. when billions are
being played with. would not count for
very muct. Connections with AUS
! tralia and japan may easily be estab-
| lished through the Panama canal. at
| least as long as this newest highway
| is not closed by slides In short. tic
| loss OF ENjpt would be n great disaster
for the. allies. but they would by no
! means be ready to conclude peace to
avoid it
'"Thc fall of the land of the Pharaohs
| would entail nthnp nNx
ever. and. although 1t may seem little
| carly to think about these, things move
| so rapidly nowadays that 1t Is well not
to delay a consideration of the matter
! from that point OF view. Whoever holds
| Egypt also possesses the Sudan. This
is an axiom that seemed to fail only in
the case of the Mahdl. Bot we must
not forget that the reign or the Mahdi
| In EhartoCm was only possible because
| Egypt really didn't belong to anybody
neither to the Sultan in Co"stantinople
nor to the Khedive, whose country was
| occupied; nor to the English under tho
| irrcsolutc direction OF Gladstone. As
| soon as a firm hand arrived the asita
| tiOn Of the Moslem fanatics was pvt al
end to: And the Mahdi. whose bones
were thrown to the SURPRISED Crocndiles
by the not overdclicntc Kitchener, could
| find no rest even in his grave.
These Mohammedan fanatics Cano
their number is LEGION in Africa, whore
the language of the Koran has slowiJ
but surely driven out the native dia,
leCts) are all on the side Of the central
powers at present. 1t Is all very wei
TO say that tho present holy war |;
made in Germany This alone is cvi
dence that 1t is rs much stronger thar
the medieval holy wars as Othel
articles carving that label are superior
to competing goods. Now ii has sYs
tom and method. It cannot be denied
that within fourteen daYs after an oc
Cupation Of Coiro bv the feZ nnd the
pickelhauhe, EnVer Pasha could have
the Gordon monument in Khartoun
blown un. if It pleased him to do So
But according to what We have heal
sires as his Enplsh colleague.
"Mad Mullah" Not Mad.
The mad Mullah' in the hiute"lar'
of SOmaliland. who, it may be parcn
thetically remarked, is not so mnd as H.
las been described by the English tn
Sultan Of Darfur, and all the MOham
! medan princes of entire Central Africi
are likely to regard II as the proEe
time for a settlement with their Eng
lish rulers 1t must also not he for
gotten that Slatin Pasha. the NAL
through whom Great Britain pacific
moro influence in Nubia and Abyssinti
than an entire army. Is now lighting 70
tthe central powers. lie is in the Aus
trian ranks on the IsOnZO. hut he vii
no Doubt receive leave to revisit tn
land where he suffered as a Drisone
, for ten years and which hc ruled n
an oll-powerful inspector for hfteel
| wears.
Following this. it may be seen tha
British East Africa might be placed Il
a dangerous position, particularly q