MULLAH'S DEATH TRACK.

Evening Star, Issue 14999, 5 October 1912, Page 3

MULLAH'S DEATH TRACK.

■ * 'Mullah's Track of Death!' is the title of an article which appeared 'in the ' Observer ' of August 11 from a Berbera (Somaliland) correspondent. The writer takes a gloomy view of the situation in Somaliland—"a man-forgotten spot," he describes it—and writes in terms of ironv of the British Somaliland "Protectorate,"' which, he states, has been abandoned to its fate. According to the ' Observer's' correspondent, the Mullah is the one topic of conversation at Berbera with the white men, and the terror of the entire black tribes of Somaliland. "'ln club, in town, in desert it is .Mullah, Mullah, Mullah! with grim evidences of the reality of the cry.'' One is not allowed to venture outside a Tadius of five miles from Berbera, the British garrison town. " From time to time the natives of the town awake to find his mark on their door lintels . . with perhaps a note beneath it to the effect that the 2.000 rupees hidden beneath the floor and the two youngest women are to be reserved for him when the toxvn is taken." 10 WHITES—2O,OOO BLACKS. There are 10 white men in Berbera—in a city containing a population of from 20,000 to 50,000 blacks, and a handful of Indian troops. At the time of writing (says the correspondent) the friendly tribes to the eastward are deseiting' their grazing grounds and wells on the uplands, actually within sigh: of the coast, as the Mullah's scouts are approaching, and are taking to the coast villages, whilst raids and counter-raids on their neighbors' and the Mullah's flocks are weeklv occurrences. _ This tribe consists of three or four sections, which separated in the dash from the white man's protection. One section was "eaten up entirely" by the Mullah; another section arrived at'Berbera; and yet another is awaiting an opportunity to run the gauntlet of the Mullah's horsemen. DIET OF BOILED BONES. Report pays that between here and the hills lie 8,000 skeletons of people who either just failed to reach the town or else, on reaching it, and linding the state of. affairs therein, tried to return to find ground where they and their camels might graze together. Then the writer of the article strikes an alarming note. The Mullah's advanceguard was, at the time of writing, about 100 miles away. He had just captured Bohottle, 200 miles off, and slaughtered 1,000 or so, including women and children, and lisd "recently st-iit in a lef.er offering to put up a light with Berbera if we will be sportsmen, and send out certain supplies of ammunition and food that he is in need of, and leave them some few miles outside the lines. . . . One determined rush at night, his favorite time, is all that is needed, soldiers say." The Mullah's army, according to the ' Observer's ' correspondent, is some 10,000 to 12,000 strong, and the men are well mounted and fanatical, and have got thousands of rifles.