THE Thames Advertiser. Favour to none; fear of none; justice to all. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1897. ABYSSINIA AND THE WHITE NILE.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 8862, 12 October 1897, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. Favour to none; fear of none; justice to all. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1897. ABYSSINIA AND THE WHITE NILE.

A eec ent cable announced that England had concluded an agreement with the Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia ae as to territorial boundaries, by which the En p Tor received much better term? than had been given him by the previous agreement of 1891. Thisisanothei evidence of the quid pro quu arrange ment by which English and Abyssin ian diplomatists are endeavoring to contrive the overthrow of th e Dor vishes, to their mutual benefit. The fact that England has seen lit to throw such a sop to the barbaric monarch proves how much Abyssinia has risen in prestige since 1891, and how com pletely the British Government has re cognised the great possibilities which the Soudan offers when once we an on tho right side of Menelik. Tin present agreement is the outcome ol the recent successful mission of Mi Eenneli JRodd. Writing early in Sep tember, the Times correspondent says; —The further efforts of Mr Eenneli Eodd to define the Anglo Abyssinian boundary were successful, although seme points left to England by thi Anglo-French Agreement of 1891 wen ceded to Abyssinia. ... In Abys smia England is greatly dreaded, and the advance on the Nile inspired the Negus with much uneasiness. The chief object of the British Mission war to reassure Menelik on that score, and to obtain from him a pledge of neutrality during the Anglo-Egyptian opera io .8 against the Dervishes. In thisresp ct Mr Eenneli Rodi obtained the most complete success. Aienelik net only undertook to lend no aid to the Dervishes, from whom he is divided by creed and by a blood feud—the Dervishes having killed his predecessor, the Emperor dohannes—but after the departure of the British Mission he refused to entertain proposals from the Khalifa.” While matters are proceeding thinin Abyssinia, it is noteworthy that Mr Eodd failed to push his negotiations in regard to the valley of the White Nile to any definite conclusion, Meneiik being disinclin id to inter into any engagement whatsoever with regard to territory which he himself has vagut intentions of occupying. Meanwhile however, French expeditions in this territory are making good headway. A Paris correspondent writes that the incompatibility which recently be c ime so scandalously public between Prince Henry of Orleans and his old companion, M. Bonvalot, may havi bsm due to the fact that they wen both making for the same vague goal m the so-eaim'd “ Equatorial Provinces ” of Abyssinia, find that eae wish! d to enjoy the honour of being the first to cut across the hinterland of British East Africa and to read tho White Nile before the English. A letter published by the Temps from members of the- Bonvalot Missior states that they “reached on June 1 the banks of the Didesa, the chiei tributary of the White Nile. Tht mission, when left by M. Bonvalot, wm headed by the Marquis de Bon champs, who was for a long time as PQuiated with the Governor of the

Ivory doast, ani who led the Katanga j expedition. Owing to the constant ] good graces of the Galla chiefs, due | to the intercession of Menelik, M. de Bonchamps, with his four companions, reached the Didesa with singular little difficulty.” When the mail left there was no news of the White Nile itself | having been reached, but a cablegram 1 the other day contained the information that the Frenchmen had successfully accomplished this feat, having united forces with a co-operating ex pedition. As stated in the Temps , th< object of the expedition is “ with the help of an Abyssinian Sas to establish France solidly on the left .bank of the White Nile, and to come to the support of Frenchmen by the Übangi route.”