A statement that the Government- of Abyssinia had signed a
contract with an American firm, the -J. G. White Engineering Corporation, for the building of a dam across the Blue Nile evidently outran the facts. The statement would have been grave if it had been true, because such a contract would have been a violation of the Anglo-Abyssinian Treaty. On Monday Dr. Wargneh Martin, the Abyssinian envoy, arrived at Liverpool, and declared that though the American company had submitted a scheme, no contract had been signed. The American Secretary of State had been informed of the negotiations between the company and the Abyssinian Government, and we dare say that he expressed his satisfaction. There was every reason why he should have been pleased at the prospect of good business for an American company—so long as the negotiations were internationally correct, and as for this latter point he very likely kriew nothing about it.
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