SOMALILAND TBOUBLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15500, 6 January 1914, Page 6

SOMALILAND TBOUBLES.

The troubles in Somaliland are the inevitable result of an orderly Empire coming into contact with disorderly tribes. The Mullah doubtless represents lib /ty—liberty for the strong to plunder the weak, liberty for the robber to take what he has not sown. The Empire, on the other, hand, represents not liberty in the anarchic sense, but freedom in the British sense— dom to live without fear of highhanded injustice, freedom to work and to enjoy the rewards of industry. All law-giving Empires grow by the imperative necessity of preserving their frontiers against raid and of protecting friendly tribes on their. borders who abandon guerilla warfare and devote themselves to peaceful pursuits. These friendly tribes become incapable of selfdefence, for they lose their warlike habits, and are thus exposed to the attacks of more ferocious neighbours. This is the situation in Somaliland, nor can all the peaceful aspirations of the Asquith Government alter in the slightest degree the inevitable process. As long as the Empire, is vigorous, and as long as savagedom exists near any part of its vast frontier, the soldier mußt inculcate order, and the formal protection of the peaceable prelude annexation. British statesmen do not desire, and certainly do not seek, the growth of an Empire already colossal, but the Empire grows by a natural and unavoidable process notwithstanding.