A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8473, 26 June 1907, Page 5

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

By ALBERT DORRINGTON. (Author of "Along the Castlereagh," "Children of the Gully," etc.) (Published by special arrangement —Copyright reserved.)

NO. 16,

The street Egyptian is a more aggressive citizen than the Hindu or Ceylonese. He bawls after you as you pass, jeers at the cut of your coat, and the manner of your walk. Also he demands backsheesh, and he will follow you down eight streets insulting the memory of your dead parents. We heard one fellow, a black-toothed hotel-runner, ask a 1 party of Australians if they felt better now that they were out of , ... There is a great scarcity of blu6 metal in Cairo. Egypt has improved no doubt since Herbert Kitchener cleaned up its back streets and built a university at Khartoum. The dam At Assouan is a "magnificent piece of work, but the calculating southerner asks in a tired voice what all this alleged improvement of the Fellaheen means to him. The Fellah doesn't eat our mutton — he'd choke or die of over-nutrition if he did—and he does not wear woollen garments. An ordinary bed-sheet will 1 clothe an Egyptian family for a year. ! Our daily papers have been flooding us with the details of Eygpt's progress during the last ten years, of its great irrigation schemes, its munij cipal work and railway improve- [ ments, but what does it mean to you iand me?

England has hammered the Fellaheen, cleaned up his dirt, and educated him; and now it is crowding her children into the Government positions. A Fellaheen sells you a stamp at the post-office, he drives the trams and steamboats, and run s the white man off the earth wherever they meet in competition. And tomorrow the grateful Egyptian would gladly rise side by side with his dear beloved Turk—if the adventure looked sufficiently prosperous— and carry the Moslem faith across the Mediterranean. If the whole of Asia and Africa were under complete British control how many Attipodeans would occupy a single position of trust in Asia or Africa? This Empire business is excellent in its way; we get almost as much from it as the German and the Yankee. . • Also our Empire expansion is a fine thing for the young English billet-hunter with a pull. He occupies the golden positions in the Civil Service of Ceylon, Egypt and India. He occupies the golden positions in the Empire's further expansion in the direction of Chin a or Thibet. When the young New Zealander and the dreadfully - pushing Australian begin to draw huge salaries for their Imperial services, we shall begin to study in earnest the unannexed positions of the earth*. One of the exciting incidents of the passage was our race with the P. and 0. mail steamer China in the Red Sea. The China was well-known when trading between Australia and London. She ran ashore near the Island of Perim, a few, years ago while carrying Lord Brassey and suite homeward. She refloated, and runs regularly between Bombay and London.

She appeared on the skyline first morning we entered the Red Sea, and the Ophir's engines thumped out an extra revolution as her dark hull crept slowly but surely over the lip 01 the horizon. Hitherto we had rushed past everything we met, un-\ til it was understood that only a tor-pedo-destroyer could keep pace with an Australian liner. Up and up bulged the China until her big funnels were over the rim. Soire small bets were made, and the excitement grew until it became known that our boat was not in the habit of racing in the Red Sea. The China passed us comfortably. "Racing the Ophir is an expensive business," explained one of the engineers. "We'd have had no trouble in keeping ahead of the China if we cared to burn the coal, and coal costs money.'( The Arab is a stately mocker of men, lithe of "limb, and cruel-eyed; he wanders along the banks 6f.the Canal, sneering at the passing Englishman or Australian. All the world over, the children of the desert are the same. From Zanzibar, the"headquarters of the Congo slave-hunters, to Cairo, the trail of his inhuihan handiwork is visible. He has desolated certain portions of Central 1 * Africa, turned thriving native vi£ - lages into carnal houses, and worse. The methods pursued by the desert blackguard—when he is filling in orders for a big contract—are interesting. He will appear, as if by accident, in some mid-African village, pitch his tent, and proceed to till the ground. He carries with him everywhere, and the sight of his peaceful occupation soothes the suspicions of the villagers. Later in the year a few more of his kind happen along to till the soil and trade honestly with the neighbouring chiefs, until the Arabs become quite numerous. Then, without warning, a quarrel is picked over a trifling matter, and the carnage begins. The Arab is generally equipped with up-to-date firearms, and he makes short work of the disorganised villagers who attempt resistance. He carries away the young" men and women, shooting without mercy the helpless rather than encumber himself on the long march to the sea.