We venture to predict that the Germans will very soon
try the enormous experiment of a conscription in their African possessions. No European Power has done this yet, but the German system of government provokes armed resistance, and therefore demands force. Major Wissmann, for instance, it is stated, is going to the Soudan to try to obtain more soldiers. The Soudanese are born fighters, but they do not like the German discipline, as being too continuously severe, and they will demand high wages, which, again, the Colonial authori- ties, themselves underpaid, cannot or will not afford. The only alternative—unless, indeed, Africa is made a penal settle- ment for refractory soldiers, or some kinds of convicts—is a conscription, and it will be instructive to watch the effect of that plan upon the Negroes. It will, we think, either be resisted to the death, or, if accepted, will create a force which it will take a white force to keep in order. Conscription does not succeed without a moral basis, be it patriotism, as in Europe, or the pride of caste, as in Turkey, or religion, as under the Arab Khalifs.
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