All this was clearly explained by Mr. E. Stanhope in
the House on Wednesday, in =ewer to Sir W. Lawson, and Sir J. Fergusson added that the Dervishes were "enemies of the human race." When in May last they captured a port on the Red Sea, they massacred every man, woman, and child in the place. Moreover, during their march they impress all villagers as carriers, and put them forward to bear the brunt of our attack. All that is doubtless true, though it should be noted that the impressment of carriers is universally practised in Asia, occasionally even by ourselves; but we do not and cannot approve the explanation which seems to justify desolating the country in advance of the Dervishes. All food, says Sir J. Fergusson, is to be removed on the line of the enemy's advance. If the villagers can be ordered to retreat with their stores, well and good ; but if the stores are to be destroyed, that is oppression. Devastation has been given up in Europe as an instrument of war, and to devastate the country we protect strikes us as indefensible. The in- humanity of the Dervishes is no reason for our being inhuman, nor is it a. justification to say that the invaders will get the food. I might as well kill my child lest a murderer should.
