DANGER IN THE SOUDAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9129, 30 June 1908, Page 4

DANGER IN THE SOUDAN.

The Cairo correspondent of the "Pall Mall Gazette" sounds a note of warning about the Soudan. Under British guidance the affairs of that once distressful country have been progressing so well that one is apt to forget that the Soudanese are most rabid fanatics, and that pacification has not eliminated the danger of another Mahdi. Jn fact only swift and drastic measures by the authorities have kept fanaticism down. During the past four years there have been several religious disturbances. In 1904 a man proclaimed himself to be the Mahdi, and was Killed in action. A prophet who arose in the White Nile province was hanged, and his followers severely punished. The other day a certain Abd-el-Kader suddenly proclaimed himself a prophet, ani gathering a host of natives round him, started preaching a Holy War. An English inspector, sent with a force of police to bring the "prophet" to his senses, was attacked by the fanatics and killed, and the force sent to punish the murderers was fiercely attacked, and suffered the loss of three I officers. Abd-el-Kader was caught and punished. There are many self-styled holy men scattered over the Soudan and in Khartoum. At any moment one of these may declare himself a prophet, and he will, without a doubt, immediately attract a large following, for the Soudanese are essentially fanatical. As it is, whenever one of these holy men appears in the villages, or even in the streets of Khartoum, all the natives who meet him bow down before him and show by their regard and tber manner that they consider him an envoy from Allah. The correspondent thinks that the serious possibilities of such risings should be understood at Home, in view of the tendency nf a section of Englishmen to abuse their countrymen abroad for enfor - ing their authority. Clemency n mistaken for weakness in the Soudan, as it is further East.