20 DECEMBER 1902, Page 2

A Treaty of some importance has been concluded between Great

Britain and the Emperor Menelek, " King of Kings of Ethiopia." After arranging for a definite delimitation of frontiers, which we could not make intelligible without a map, but which will preclude frontier disputes, the Emperor grants to Great Britain, for commercial purposes only, an enclave of four hundred hectares, say a thousand acres, on the Baro River, to be held so long as the Soudan is under the Anglo- Egyptian Government. His Majesty also concedes the right to construct a railway from the Soudan to Uganda, and agrees to the following most important stipulation : " His Majesty the Emperor Menelek II., Bing of Kings of Ethiopia, engages himself towards the Government of His Britannic Majesty not to construct, or allow to be constructed, any work across the Blue Nile, Lake Tsana, or the Sobat which would arrest the flow of their waters into the Nile except in agreement with His Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of the Soudan." That proviso may one day prove the salvation of Egypt, the ground idea of every enemy of the British interested in Egypt being to induce the King of Kings of Ethiopia to arrest the Nile water by an obstacle which, after starving the Delta, could be removed.