Events--inexorable, inevitable events--will decide it.

"There was a time, not so very long ago, when the British Empire would
have quite calmly -- and ever-so-politely -- sent an entire regiment of
the Queen's Army, embarked aboard a flotilla of Her Majesty's Ships, to
help the Sudanese leaders see reason. That time, alas, is past."
- JAR(EGG)HEAD


This snipping in recent post by Jar(egg)head about the madness in Sudan reminded me of
a book by Arthur Conan Doyle I recall from my youth.  I stumbled across it again a year
ago and was struck by how it spoke to the situation we find ourselves in today as the
defacto 21st Century heirs of the British Empire on the world stage.  The story, 
"The Tragedy of the Korosko", was written in 1898 about a group of western tourists to
Egypt who are taken hostage by a group of Dervishes (Islamic extremists of their time)
whose intention it is either to convert them to Islam or to kill them.  The political
discussion between a Frenchman, two British men, and an American at the start of the
book a great example of how things change yet stay the same.

The story is in the public domain now, and freely available online, and I very much
recommend giving it a read. [Project Gutenberg Copy Here]


As a taste, I give you one of my favorite short passages from the book below, enjoy!



"It isn't safe to reckon upon a Dervish's fears," remarked Brown.
"We must always bear in mind that they are not amenable to the same
motives as other people.  Many of them are anxious to meet death, and
all of them are absolute, uncompromising believers in destiny.
They exist as a _reductio ad absurdum_ of all bigotry--a proof of how
surely it leads towards blank barbarism."

"You think these people are a real menace to Egypt?" asked the American.
"There seems from what I have heard to be some difference of opinion
about it.  Monsieur Fardet, for example, does not seem to think that the
danger is a very pressing one."

"I am not a rich man," Colonel Cochrane answered after a little pause,
"but I am prepared to lay all I am worth, that within three years of the
British officers being withdrawn, the Dervishes would be upon the
Mediterranean.  Where would the civilisation of Egypt be?  Where would
the hundreds of millions which have been invested in this country?
Where the monuments which all nations look upon as most precious
memorials of the past?"

"Come now, Colonel," cried Headingly, laughing, "surely you don't mean
that they would shift the pyramids?"

"You cannot foretell what they would do.  There is no iconoclast in the
world like an extreme Mohammedan.  Last time they overran this country
they burned the Alexandrian Library.  You know that all representations
of the human features are against the letter of the Koran.  A statue is
always an irreligious object in their eyes.  What do these fellows care
for the sentiment of Europe?  The more they could offend it, the more
delighted they would be.  Down would go the Sphinx, the Colossi, the
Statues of Abou-Simbel--as the saints went down in England before
Cromwell's troopers."

"Well now," said Headingly, in his slow, thoughtful fashion, "suppose I
grant you that the Dervishes could overrun Egypt, and suppose also that
you English are holding them out, what I'm never done asking is, what
reason have you for spending all these millions of dollars and the lives
of so many of your men?  What do you get out of it, more than France
gets, or Germany, or any other country, that runs no risk and never lays
out a cent?"

"There are a good many Englishmen who are asking themselves that
question," remarked Cecil Brown.  "It's my opinion that we have been the
policemen of the world long enough.  We policed the seas for pirates and
slavers.  Now we police the land for Dervishes and brigands and every
sort of danger to civilisation.  There is never a mad priest or a witch
doctor, or a firebrand of any sort on this planet, who does not report
his appearance by sniping the nearest British officer.  One tires of it
at last. If a Kurd breaks loose in Asia Minor, the world wants to know
why Great Britain does not keep him in order.  If there is a military
mutiny in Egypt, or a Jehad in the Soudan, it is still Great Britain who
has to set it right.  And all to an accompaniment of curses such as the
policeman gets when he seizes a ruffian among his pals.  We get hard
knocks and no thanks, and why should we do it?  Let Europe do its own
dirty work."

"Well," said Colonel Cochrane, crossing his legs and leaning forward
with the decision of n man who has definite opinions, "I don't at all
agree with you, Brown, and I think that to advocate such a course is to
take a very limited view of our national duties.  I think that behind
national interests and diplomacy and all that there lies a great guiding
force--a Providence, in fact--which is for ever getting the best out of
each nation and using it for the good of the whole.  When a nation
ceases to respond, it is time that she went into hospital for a few
centuries, like Spain or Greece--the virtue has gone out of her.  A man
or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant
and what is profitable.  It is often called upon to carry out what is
both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is
mere shirking not to undertake it."

Headingly nodded approvingly.

"Each has its own mission.  Germany is predominant in abstract thought;
France in literature, art, and grace.  But we and you--for the
English-speakers are all in the same boat, however much the _New York
Sun_ may scream over it--we and you have among our best men a higher
conception of moral sense and public duty than is to be found in any
other people.  Now, these are the two qualities which are needed for
directing a weaker race.  You can't help them by abstract thought or by
graceful art, but only by that moral sense which will hold the scales of
Justice even, and keep itself free from every taint of corruption.
That is how we rule India.  We came there by a kind of natural law, like
air rushing into a vacuum.  All over the world, against our direct
interests and our deliberate intentions, we are drawn into the same
thing.  And it will happen to you also.  The pressure of destiny will
force you to administer the Whole of America from Mexico to the Horn."

Headingly whistled.

"Our Jingoes would be pleased to hear you, Colonel Cochrane," said he.
"They'd vote you into our Senate and make you one of the Committee on
Foreign Relations."

"The world is small, and it grows smaller every day.  It's a single
organic body, and one spot of gangrene is enough to vitiate the whole.
There's no room upon it for dishonest, defaulting, tyrannical,
irresponsible Governments.  As long as they exist they will always be
sources of trouble and of danger.  But there are many races which appear
to be so incapable of improvement that we can never hope to get a good
Government out of them.  What is to be done, then?  The former device of
Providence in such a case was extermination by some more virile stock--
an Attila or a Tamerlane pruned off the weaker branch.  Now, we have a
more merciful substitution of rulers, or even of mere advice from a more
advanced race.  That is the case with the Central Asian Khanates and
with the protected States of India.  If the work has to be done, and if
we are the best fitted for the work, then I think that it would be a
cowardice and a crime to shirk it."

"But who is to decide whether it is a fitting case for your
interference?" objected the American.  "A predatory country could grab
every other land in the world upon such a pretext."

"Events--inexorable, inevitable events--will decide it.  Take this
Egyptian business as an example.  In 1881 there was nothing in this
world further from the minds of our people than any interference with
Egypt; and yet 1882 left us in possession of the country.  There was
never any choice in the chain of events.  A massacre in the streets of
Alexandria, and the mounting of guns to drive out our fleet--which was
there, you understand, in fulfilment of solemn treaty obligations--led
to the bombardment.  The bombardment led to a landing to save the city
from destruction.  The landing caused an extension of operations--and
here we are, with the country upon our hands.  At the time of trouble we
begged and implored the French, or any one else, to come and help us to
put the thing to rights, but they all deserted us when there was work to
be done, although they are ready enough to scold and to impede us now.
When we tried to get out of it, up came this wild Dervish movement, and
we had to sit tighter than ever.  We never wanted the task; but, now
that it has come, we must put it through in a workmanlike manner.
We've brought justice into the country, and purity of administration,
and protection for the poor man.  It has made more advance in the last
twelve years than since the Moslem invasion in the seventh century.
Except the pay of a couple of hundred men, who spend their money in the
country, England has neither directly nor indirectly made a shilling out
of it, and I don't believe you will find in history a more successful
and more disinterested bit of work."

Headingly puffed thoughtfully at his cigarette.

"There is a house near ours, down on the Back Bay at Boston, which just
ruins the whole prospect," said he.  "It has old chairs littered about
the stoop, and the shingles are loose, and the garden runs wild; but I
don't know that the neighbours are exactly justified in rushing in, and
stamping around, and running the thing on their own lines."

"Not if it were on fire?" asked the Colonel.

Headingly laughed, and rose from his camp-stool.