FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
The Mad Mullah of Somaliland. By Douglas Jardine. (Her- bert Jenkins. 16s. net.) To an English inquirer a Baganda policeman identified the leaders of a caravan in these terms : " Somalis They no good. Each man his own Sultan." Mohammed bin Abdulla Hassan was the most intractable and successful megalomaniac that the British Government encountered in Somaliland. In spite of our punitive expeditions for over twenty-one years he kept out of our hands, ruined the country, and terrorized the natives. Directly and indirectly he was responsible for some 200,000 deaths. Tyrant and cutthroat, slayer of innocent women and children, cattle-thief, profligate and libertine," he was accorded by Somalis a certain amount of awe and admiration for his religious pretences. He had, moreover, an astuteness and a tenacity of purpose that made him very difficult to defeat wholly ; and from partial defeats he seemed to spring up with increased strength. Mr. Jardine recounts his career and the final annihilation of his forces with a quite unusual vigour. His book is based on official documents and the author's own experience as Secretary to the Administration. The publishers are to be congratu- lated on having secured so excellent a work.
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