The Press. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1903. THE EXPEDITION TO KANO.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11547, 1 April 1903, Page 6

The Press. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1903. THE EXPEDITION TO KANO.

" The unregenerate Britisli public doee not, "as a rule, mind a fight, , .' remarks the London "Times," "but it likes to know " what the quarrel is about." It is possible, therefore, that the public may like to know' something about the latest little war in which England lias been engaged— the expedition carried out in Northern Nigeria by Lieutenant-Colonel Holland, under the instructions of the High Commissioner, Sir Frederick Lugnrd, who has juet been complimented l by the King and Mr Chamberlain. For the country it suffices to say that Northern Nigeria, a territory one-third the size of India, has been a British Protectorate for Tather more than three years, having until then been in the occupation of the Royal Niger Company. It includes the old Foulah empire, of which the Sultan of Sokoto is—or was— the nominal head. The country is in many parts enormously fertile, and , the exporta include cotton, ivory, rubber, indigo, end hides. Into this vast region, cover--ing 320,000 square miles, the home of tyranny and the haunt of the slave-raider, Sir Frederick Lugard had to introduce law and order, and to set up some form of British administration. That he has succeeded with a staff of military and civil assistants numbering only 165 all told, id extraordinary testimony to the wisdom of hit methods. Year by year he has brought th'j various provinces under the influence of the British system of government, which, as " The Times" frankly admits, reste on military conquest, because that is the only foundation understood and respected by tlie nativee. There has ''been more or less fighting throughout the three years, for the petty rulers who refused to obey treaty obligations had to bo taught manners or deposed to make room for more friendly successors. British prestige increased with each, success, until in twelve of the fifteen provinces British Residencies had been established at the headquarters of the native Government, a modilied system of British law introduced to work with Native Courts, roade opened for trade, and slave-raiding suppressed.

At the end of the three yeare, however, thero still remained three provinces over whic!» England's protectorate wus a very shadowy affair. These were Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto. The Emirs of Kano and Sokoto have been particularly opposed to their inclusion in the British sphere of influence, and Karo especially became a source of danger to the British occupation of Northern Nigeria. It -nas tbo most powerful of the provinces, the Emir, Bobo, was the greatest military chief in the couutry, and it was said he could put ten thousand horsemen in the field against ns. Ht.« Court became the refuge for tty© malcontente of all the other provinces. He reoeived with marks of honour and rejoicing the chief who last October murdered Captain Moloney, the British Resident of Nassarawa, and replied to the demand that the murderer should be given up by insolently offering a reward for the head of the nearest British Resident. Ho closed his trade roads to the South, and rendered it impossible for the Anglo-French Delimitation Commission to proceed, there being no doubt that he would have attacked it as it traversed his country. His whole attitude wae so threatening that -the British garrison at the nearest Residency was strengthened, aiM the whole country thereupon said the British meant to attack Kar.o. Although this had not been Sir F. Lugard's immediate intention, it was inevitable when such report* became current, or it would have been said that th« British were afraid and there would have beeu a sudden end to tiieir prestige. So die campaign wa» with a force of

.some 1200 t*ooiw, mostly Hauwa,, our cable messages Lave told w , Wse ed -with Buccessr, tiiough the Emir escape^/* with his gu?st the murderer. Since then Sokoto has been occupied and the u> t peditionary force is now disbanding. The importance of the result lice in the assertion of British authority, ii» opeoW* of the ii>oads to trad , *, and the release of ttw ' people from,(he oppression of their nltr. Tiw txpedition was also noiworthv b*. " cause it brings under Britiih nria the ctt» of Kuno—one of th\> biwutt, juid probably ihe Wet known, of this world's groat mart* - of commerce. Its age may be imagmej from tio fact that it. ■β-os aa important - commercial wntre before the Tower <*" * Ix>ndon was buflt.. At the. time of +i» Xorman Conquest by England Kano, to quote a recent writer, "was already a egg. '• tre from -which the Mahoinmsdaa Stafcj ' ' "of the Meditewairean coaet and of "interior of Africa and far Arabia drew '" "luxuries that very gradually nudj *". "tht-ir way into cuinmon use m "the countries of Xorthora Europft. ,, Its greut nxarfcet place was *U»t centre of a huge trade in cotton cloti, the red and yellow leather that gained tb» name of Morocco because it reached the out"', side world through that country, gu» arabic, feathers, ivory, and all the productt of one of tie richest regions of. Western Africa. "The caravan trade ot " Kano has flowed for centuries north and "south, and east and west across the desert »■ " and along the" fertile river strips of Uμ rf , "African continent, supplying the interior v "as it went." Its commercial 'supremacy - has remained unchallenged to this day; it V is now, as it was a thousand years ago, !, the centre where all the wealth of tht f country accumulates and whence it is distributed, a manufacturing metropolis, tht ** focus of the caravan routes. And to thii iK day it has remained almost as little known, almost as mysterious, to the world beyond Z» as it was when Norman kings ruled Eng» \ land. Now for the first time in its long f , history its massive walls, a hundred feet " in thickness enclosing an area of soznt U fifteen miles in circumference, shelter « British troops. A new era has come Kano—one in which ite ancient prosperity *' should increase, for it is an era of petct ' T and progress, the new regime that follows \ the spread of British influence in imgt i lands. ' . , '