Herr INGER, the Austro-Hungarian Mohamedan who claims apparently to be the real Emperor of Somali-Tand, and says that the Mad Mullah is not mad at all, but is his, Herr Tnger's, most trusty lieutenant, has been endeavouring to persuade people at home that the Mad Mullah is a popular hero who is endeavouring to free his country from British tyranny. The real situation is that as long as we hold India we recognise it as indispensable that the Red Sex and its approaches should be kept as safe waterways for our ships and the ships of all nations. With this intention we hold Aden and Perim, and have considered it necessary to take under our protection the northern part Somaliland. Nobody is aggrieved by this, but the peaceful inhabitants of the country are greatly benefited for men like the Mad Mullah, the Mahdi, and other such leaders, are not patriots striving to throw off aa oppressive foreign yoke, but bandits on a large scale who live by robbing caravans and taking their small accumulations from the peaceful traders and agriculturists. To them the Pax Britannica which follows ovr presence in the country is hateful because it forces them if they wish to live to become honest workers, Because we have so often succexled in imposing and maintaining the Pax Britannica in wild countries with very inadequate forces, our Government has got into the habit of thinking and acting as if this can always done. The "Saturday Review of the 25: h of October tells us that the responsibility for the recent rever-e ves not rest with Colonel Swayne Colonel Swayne, we have every reason to believe, more than once represented to the authorities that ho had nob forces sufficient for his undertaking and asked for iore—but asked in vain. The Mullah is no new and unknown enemy. Practically ever since Great Britain assumed the protectorate of Somaliland in 1884 he has been.a more or less conspicuous figure in Somali life. The Mullah was just an ordinary Somali peasant, who made some pilgrimages to Mecca, and on the strength of the reputation for extreme holiness these pilgrimages obtained for him set as a militant saint. In 1899 his fanaticism began to assert itself and he placed himself at the head of a number of followers who are more easily secured apparently in the African desert than almost anywhere else. He has no fixed headquarters, as had the Mahdi at El Obeid and the Khalifa at Omdurman, which of course makes it the more difficult to hunt him down, for when pressed his band just melts away. He moved about the' country locust-like, rendering the infertile land less fertile, and lived by raiding the Abyssinian frontier. An Abyssinian force three years ago hand-Jed him so severely that it was thought he was suppressed. He has, however, much of the genius of an Osman Digna for reappearing in strength after what seemed to be a crushing defeat. Last year his raiding and his rapidly growing power in the hinterland rendered it necessary for us to organised British and Abyssinian expedition. The Abyssinians attacked him from the west and the Brisish from the north, and tried to corner him. He escaped across theltalian frontier, whither colonel Swayne was eager to follow, but was not allowed by the Foreign Office for fear of wounding; the diplomatic susceptibilities of Italy. Colonel Swayne had ignored the question of the Italian frontier, probably no difticulty would have arisen inasmuch as there is no certainty as to what. the Italian border actually is, and as Italy keeps her hold on the Red Sea littoral mainly for sentimental reasons he would in any case hardly have troubled seriously about the matter. Forced to retire, Colonel Swayne then proposed that a line of posts should be established at the British fronter, which would at least prevent repetition of the raiding, was also vetoed by the Foreign Office, with the result that a new expedition, this time unaided by the Abyssinians, became necessary.
The telegram we publish' this morning tells us that the Somali troops, who were the main constituents of Colonel Swayne's little army, "continue to prove undisciplined and utterly unreliable," and it is happily evident that the Mad Mullah's forces, are not much better, or, With their superiority in numbers,; Cnlonel Swayne would have been annihilated as Hicks Pasha was in the Soudan. This, as the "Saturday" points out, would have meant an enormous addition to the Mullah's strength. The numbers that would have flocked to his standard would only have been limited by the physical difficulties of snpp'ying "linge force in such a country as Somaliland with food and especiv'ly water. As his attack on Colonel Swayne was only partially successful, the task of crushing him will not be so onerous might have.been. Until he is crushed, no caravan routes or v anywherenearthe British, Abyssinian, or Italian borders will be safe, and the task is facilitated by the fact that Italy has readily grantd leave to our forces to enter her territory, necessary, The offers of assistance made by Britishers and Boers in South Africa had to be declined, because is is not a country la which white troops can be used, though the cooler weather which is now coming on is more favourable for operations in Somaliland than when Colonel Swayne's recent fight took place. Whether the Emperor Menelik will ce-operate again with our forces, we do not know, but he may at any rate be expected to guard his own frontier if the Mullah tries to retreat to the westward, The Indian troops that Colonel Swayne will now have under his command may be trusted to give good account of the Mai Mullah if [they can get in contact with him. That the Mullah himself is "a resourceful man with the Arab genius for poetic expression" is shown story tuid by the "Spectator." A searchlight frm a cruis-r had struck dismay into the hearts of some of his fieutenants, and the Mullah reassured them by telling them that it was "the glance of God as he watched over them."
We close with an extract from the "Spectator" of the 25th of October hist We have no fears for the result; but how angry the story makes one. Shall we never leora that if we accept our apparent destiny, and consent for the goud of the world as well as ourselves to hold one-fifth of mankind in tutelage, we must arm ourselves for that heavy task, and prepare the swift as well as strong force for which at a moment's notice in any one of a dozen places there many be urgent need? Cannot our people understand that if hath in Asia and Africa our intrusion means for the majority of meaning cultivators peace and protection, it means for the disorderly classes, for the people who live in tone way or another by oppression and Blunders an" unendurable tranquility Wholly apart from the creed question, which blazes up fitfully and seldom survives quiet prosperity, their energies are smothered under the British flag, and they will fight under any one who will lead them. They did it in Burma, where they are all Buddhists, just as much as in Somaliland who call followers of the Prophet. We believe, even in Asia and A in lenient government; but to secure it these men must be kept order, must be taught by sharp and complete defeat that the time when their business was profitable is past. In other words, if we are to go on holding huge slices of black Africa, we ought to have a powerful army of disciplined dark men, distributed in girtisons chosen by experts, and always ready for mobilisation at forty-eight hours' notice. Such an army would' cost about a million a year—part of the sum being and the men may be s, negroes from the Caribbean Sea, Ha lus, or Basutos, if it is found they will' enlist. 'There are ly hundreds of thousands of dark who would be willing recruits, and trained as carefully as the Ezyptian has been trained, would be most efficient soldiers. It' is folly to use our own islanders on such work except hymen, for, nut to mention the Timitations of supply, they are not equally fitted for the African climate, or for the special kind of hardship in the way of short supplies which an African expedition frequently entails. As for the summons to the Sikhs, the tendency is to rol upon India a gvoat deal too mich, to the dive ited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.