AFFAIRS IN ABYSSINIA.

Thames Star, Volume XLV, Issue 10633, 5 February 1909, Page 4

AFFAIRS IN ABYSSINIA.

Events have m&rohed far in A'byssiuia since the day when King Theodore 'proposed an offensive and defeinslve alliaßlcia with Britain,, alirl--1 suggested that Queen Victoria should became his wife 1. The Foreign. Office, in 1865, thought that Abyssinia wav a country of no importance, and left King Theodore's letter unanswered. Thereupon the King'threw t<he British Consul, the Protestant' missionaries and one or two British subjects into prison, and kept them there for. four years. They were released wh^i the Napier -expedition reached Mogdalai, then the ;A.'byssinian capital. I The bombardment of Mlaigdala, and thei suicide of the King followed. It. was not until 1888 tliat Abyssinia again acknowledged m> king. Menelik, King: of iShoa, engineered a revolution, and ulthripitoly bcune .Niegu, reducing all the petij: kings to submission. The Italians had a taste of his quality whan, itihey had 150 bffi- : cere and 7000 men killed at Adowo, ' and lost, another 1500 men taken, pri- • soners. Menelik oi'g&nised an airmy on (Elutropean lines, and adopted many Western ideas of government. He had the igood sense to hold his hand when French agemits, with the Marchand enterprise in view, were'trying to persuade him to taike sides with the Dervishes against the British. K'inKj Menelik found thei British perfectly friendly, and the formal de- j limitation of the frontier between Soudan and Abyssinia gaive his country a new security which he was quick to appreciate. Of late yeara most of the Etaropean nations. ha,ve sent expeditions to oa.ll upon thsi Negus-. .The,

French obtained the concession for a railway line from Jibutil to Harra.r, and on to Adta- Abeiba. The Italians 'haivfe sought Abyssinian help in mwintaininipr order on the Somialilaiid frontier 1. A. Rlussiarii 'mission 'Was at Adia Abeba ai few yeairs aj<ro, a.nd last year a German: commercial mission was spyinpr out the la«T)d with a view i'r, the development of trade. If Kino; •Mlenelik- should die there would cen--

tainly be a scramible for the -throno, a.nd the French, Italians, and Germans would: all -bei sdhaminiff aaainst the British and neaiinsit one another to^establish a hold upon the new Government.