Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-13
BY ISAIAH BOWMAN,
Famous Geographer and Technical A
at Paris Peace Conference.

Famous Geographer and Technical Adviser
at Paris Peace Conference.
Add Ell. Krim's dramatic surrender
and the imminent conquest of the last
of the Riffian tribes may be the end
of the chapter. but at most only
single chapter in the long chronicle
of Mohammedan and Christian rela-
tons. OF a piece with the Moroccan
problem are the Syrian and Egyptian
problems-in this respect. that all are
bristling with religious difficulties.
There are many other difficulties, too,
but the religious aspects are of most
poignant interest to the Moham-
medans, who see Turkey rejecting the
strict tenets Of the founders, the
caliphate a subject of bitter rivalry
and shame, and newly transferred
millions of the faithful living under
Christian flags.
1t was only few years ago that
certain prophets of disaster saw the
crescent banner advancing to the un-
doing of Western civilization. The
horseman was so appallingly success
full an instrument of empire in the
days of Jenghis Khan and Tamerlane
that we may as well be impressed with
those historic examples of conquest
and ask ourselves If they could not
be repeated in our day.
Religion Is Growing.
There is no doubt that Mohamme-
danism is growing with great speed.
Nor can we overlook the potential col
lective power of 100000, 900 co-religion-
lists. What is important, however, is
to see the rigorous conditions under
which these millions live, how serious
are the barriers of desert and sea
about them, how scattered their re-
sources, how divergent their religious
sympathies, how eccentric their pur-
poses, how perennial their quarrels.
So desertic is most of the Moham-
medan world that it can support
only the thinnest densities of popula-
ton. India and Egypt can give end
less trouble, but it is local trouble.
They may seek to end the hated for
eign rule. but this is far different from
saying that they can take their re-
sources with them in a campaign
against a foreign country. A popula-
ton dependent upon agriculture is
rooted to the soil. Even nomadic
grazing society can menace only the
settled border of it's domain. however
restless and menacing it may be.
When it seeks to unite for. attack
the desert heat, drought, distance and
empty space unite against 1t. AS soon
as the desert dweller is put upon the
defensive the desert becomes his
G~I f4. 1t
Pershing in Mexico spent six hundred
millions of treasure-the cost of the
Panama Canal-and took no fortified
place, fought no pitched battle, cap
tured no large city: he fought heat
and aridity and sand.
Past Methods No Peril.
No. the old days of possible con-
quest from the desert are past and
they will not menace us again If we
keen our modern industrial supremacy
and continue our control of the sea.
There is not enough technical skill in
the whole Mohammedan world to build
or operate a single battleship or air
plane squadron. Short railwaysare here
and there outside Turkey in the Mos
lem domain, but they are fixed, not
flexible like a fleet. Moreover, the
railroad is a mere point on the coast.
Mobilization of the desert resources
is impossible, and even II it were
possible the instruments are lacking
to make such modified resources
effective.
All these things clearly suggest a
definite policy on the part of Christian
powers-leave the Moha mmedan world
alone so far as possible and where
power must be exercised let it be for
limited objective, for marginal con-
troll. England has conspicuously fol-
lowed such a policy. whether inten-
tionally or accidentally. Outlets and
corridors and islands and straits near
or in the Mohammedan world have
been her objective.
The alternative Is costly military .ex-