TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE REVERSE IN SOMALILAND.
IT is not of much use discussing just now why we are fighting a Mussulman zealot for the possession of Somaliland, a large African province of great size—our half of the enormous tract is only a little smaller than France—with very inferior fertility and a thin but nearly savage population. Somaliland has fallen into our hands, as many such places fall, partly by accident and partly because competent authorities in India, at Aden, and at home thought that to rule it would prove an easier task than to watch it from the sea-board. The freedom of the entrance to the Red Sea being vital to Imperial interests, we could not allow the Somali littoral to fall into the possession of any European Power, or even of the Abyssinian Negus, who may one day be replaced by a less able and less friendly ruler. We therefore took possession of the ports, of which Berbera is the best, and then found that to retain them we must in some degree maintain order in the vast and useless Hinterland of which we claim half, the other half being under the " protection " of Italy. As usual we tried to do this without spending money or drawing upon our Regular forces, and as usual also, a local adven- turer thought that in those circumstances he could build up a kingdom for himself. This time, as constantly happens in Africa, our opponent is a Mussulmen Doctor named Mohammed ben Abdullah, who to en- courage his Mussulman followers pretends to some kind of inspiration. He may be a zealot., for he has twice performed the pilgrimage to Mecca ; but it is more certain that he is a man of ability, who can maintain his ascen- dency over his followers even when he is not victorious, and who can make them fight to the death against all non-Mussulman intruders. He has been defeated again and again, but has always come on afresh, and this time he has apparently inflicted a severe blow. Colonel Swayne, the Indian Staff officer whom we have made absolute there, and whom his superiors believe to be competent, having gathered together a little army—a few Sikhs, half a West African regiment, and fifteen hundred Somali locals, or about two thousand five hundred men—thought himself strong enough to crush his opponent once for all, and marched, we suspect, a little too far into the interior. At all events, the Mullah—the English word " Mad " gives a false impression—surprised him, " shook " his Locals, that is, we suppose, killed so many that the survivors would not advance again, and drove him to retreat towards the coast, which is two hundred and fifty miles off. Though the latest news is decidedly encouraging, and Colonel Swayne is reported to have reached a place of comparative safety, the Mullah may make a further attack and again put him in a position of great danger. The few troops in Berbera are being hurried to his assistance, native Regulars are being despatched from Aden, and we do not doubt that Lord Curzon, with his accustomed promptitude and sense, besides forwarding a regiment from Bombay, has already issued orders for organising an expedition mainly composed of Sikhs. To them an expedition is a delightful game of polo. the great military Monarchy which we call " India " is always stripped for action, there are plenty of steamers in Bombay, and we do not doubt that the Mullah will speedily find civilisation too strong for him, though he did, we have been told, explain to his lieutenants that the searchlight from a cruiser which struck dismay into their hearts was "the glance of God as He watched over them," a remark which, if he made it, shows him a resourceful man, with the Arab genius for poetic expression.
We have no fears for the result; but bow angry the story makes one. Shall we never learn that if we accept our apparent destiny, and consent for the good 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 may be urgent need ? Cannot our people understand that if both in Asia and Africa our intrusion means for the majority of well - meaning cultivators peace and protection, it means for the dis- orderly classes, for the people who live in one way or another by oppression and plunder, an unendurable tran- quillity? Wholly apart from the creed question, which blazes up fitfully and seldom survives quiet prosperiti, their energies are smothered under the British flag, atici they will fight under any one who will lead them. They did it in Burmah, where they are all Buddhists, just as much as in Somaliland, where they are all followers of the Prophet. We believe, even in Asia and Africa, in lenient government ; but to secure it these men must be kept in 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 garrisons 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 locally provided —and the men may be Sikhs or other Indians, negroes from the Caribbean Sea, Haussaa, Zulus, or Basutos, if it is found they will enlist. There are literally hundreds of thousands of dark men who would be willing recruits, and who, if trained as carefully as the Egyptian Army has been trained, would be most efficient soldiers. It is folly to use our own islanders on such work, except as artillerymen, for, not to mention the limitations 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 rely upon India a great deal too much, to the disturbance of many Indian arrangements ; but if that policy were deliberately adopted, then there should be a separate wing of the Indian Army set apart for African service, and commanded by men who really understand its necessities, and are accustomed to act together. We want a special force always ready to police our black possessions.
We wonder how many Members of Parliament have ever reflected on the really heavy moral responsibility of our countrymen in this matter. We have no moral right whatever to take these huge slices of territory unless we are prepared to fulfil our part of the bargain ; that is, to secure for their inhabitants the opportunity for that pros- perity which is one needful basis of civilisation. We can have no claim, for instance, in Somaliland to keep down the Mullah, who might build up a kingdom ; and keep out Menelek, who would enforce a rough order; and warn off the French, who at all events would make a capital ; and then leave the population exposed to the murderous raids of any adventurer who can gather a following. That is not government of any sort, but protection for anarchy, and it is that anarchy which we allow, if we do not foster, when we leave ourselves without the means of establishing the Pax Britannica, which at all events means liberty to trade and cultivate without the interference of armed ruffians. Our readers, we fear, hardly realise the awful sum of human misery, of never-ending terror and devasta- tion, that one adventurer like the Mandi or the Mullah can produce merely by calling the condottieri of his district to a plundering raid. Our business in return for Empire is to stop that, and we cannot stop it unless we have always ready at a few hours' notice an armed and trained police which no accidental adventurer with an "army " of brave ruffians can defeat. That it is our own interest also to keep up such a police, and so prevent little political earthquakes, every one of which threatens our Treasury and encourages our ill-wishers, is a subordinate part of the great question, which really involves for us an imperative moral duty.
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