ABYSSINIA. 



Bashi-Bazouks, under five European officers, 

 and Adem Aga, a native ally, who enlisted 200 

 Assaortins on the way. The latter sent infor- 

 mation to Debeb during the march, and the 

 Italian captain, posting the rest of his force 

 around the village of Saganeiti, where Debeb 

 was with 700 men, half of them armed with 

 muskets, entered the place with 100 Bashi-Ba- 

 zouks, and drove the Abyssinians out of a fort, 

 which he then occupied. The Assaortins went 

 over to the enemy during the fight, and the 

 Italian irregulars fled from the fort in disorder. 

 Those outside were panic-stricken, and the en- 

 tire force was routed, witli a loss of 350 men. 

 The Italian officers, with the few who stood by 

 them, fell fighting, and the rest were killed in 

 flight. Before the occurrence of this reverse, 

 Maj.-Gen. Baldissera had relieved Gen. San 

 Marzano in the command of the Italian forces 

 in Africa. The chieftain Debeb was a relative 

 of the Negus, whose favor he regained with 

 the Italian rifles with which his force of scouts 

 were armed when they deserted with their 

 leader to the Abyssinians. His raids during 

 July in the II abash country, lying between the 

 mountains and the Red Sea, grew so bold that 

 he plundered the neighborhood of Arkiko, four 

 miles from Massowah, before the punitive ex- 

 pedition was undertaken. The principal suf- 

 ferers were the Assaortins, which tribe was 

 under Italian protection. The Italian com- 

 mander-in-chief hoped by the expedition to 

 Saganeiti to encourage the revolt of the petty 

 chiefs of the province of Tigr6, who had thrown 

 off the authority of the Negus when he with- 

 drew his troops to meet the dervishes. Capt. 

 Oornacchia, commanding the expedition, had 

 orders to surprise Saganeiti by a forced march, 

 but to withdraw if he found that the enemy 

 knew of his approach. He failed to observe 

 his orders as to speed and secrecy, and when 

 he reached Saganeiti, which is seventy-five 

 miles distant from Massowah, he allowed him- 

 self to be ambushed in the village, which had 

 the appearance of being deserted when his 

 force first entered. 



Diplomatic Difficulties. The military governor 

 of Massowah on May 30 imposed a tax on real- 

 estate proprietors and traders for streets and 

 lights, and on June 1 a license-tax on dealers 

 in liquors and food. French and Greek mer- 

 chants refused to pay these taxes. In the sum- 

 mer, the French Government, which has re- 

 garded with jealousy Italy's occupation of 

 Massowah, put forward the claim that the 

 capitulations existed there, as in other Eastern 

 countries, and that Italy was debarred from 

 imposing taxes and exercising criminal juris- 

 diction as regards French citizens and pro- 

 teges without the consent of France. Signor 

 Orispi denied that the capitulations had existed 

 there under Turkish and Egyptian rule, de- 

 clared that if they had they were extinguished, 

 by Italian occupation, and asserted that, even 

 if they still were in force, foreigners would be 

 subject to municipal taxation, as in Bulgaria, 



Cyprus, Egypt, and Turkey. In a second note 

 he explained that the judicial system at Masso- 

 wah was the same as at Tadjurah and Zeilah, 

 declared that the occupation of Massowah ful- 

 filled the conditions laid down in the general 

 act of the Berlin Conference, and characterized 

 the objections of France in the following vigor- 

 ous words: 



It is not from Turkey that complaints and objec- 

 tions reach us, but, as is always the case, from France, 

 who has succeeded in attracting Greece into the orbit 

 of her demands ; from France, who would appear to 

 regard the pacific progress of Italy as tending to di- 

 minish her own power, as if the African continent did 

 not afford ample scope to the legitimate activity and 

 civilizing ambition of all the powers. 



The Greek Government at first supported 

 the protests of France, but was brought to 

 accept the Italian view. The Italian foreign 

 minister characterized the course of the French 

 Government with a severity of language not 

 usual in diplomatic intercourse, because it 

 seemed actuated by a meddlesome desire to 

 interfere, since there were only two French 

 traders in Massowah, and the capitulations had 

 been invoked by the French consul in behalf 

 of Greeks?, who were claimed to be French 

 proteges. After the exchange of views be- 

 tween the Italian and Greek Cabinets, the 

 merchants paid their taxes, but before that oc- 

 curred several had been arrested, and some of 

 them banished as rebels. M. Goblet, in August, 

 replied to the Italian note in a circular, insist- 

 ing that Frnnce had always regarded Massowah 

 as Egyptian and Turkish territory. France 

 was the only power having a vice-consul there, 

 and he had received his exequatur from the 

 Porte. Italy had for a long time disclaimed 

 the idea of permanent occupation, and had 

 failed to fulfill the requirements of the Berlin 

 Convention of 1885, by not notifying the fact 

 of taking possession to the powers, so that 

 they might have an opportunity to make ob- 

 jections. The French minister denied that the 

 capitulations could be set aside without the 

 consent of the powers interested, and pointed 

 out that, in other cases, as in those of Tunis, 

 Bosnia, and Cyprus, the power taking posses- 

 sion had been able to produce a treaty conclud- 

 ed with the protected or sovereign govern- 

 ment. He concluded by saying that if Europe 

 assented to the Italian procedure the French 

 Government would take note that hencefor- 

 ward the capitulations disappear without nego- 

 tiation and without accord of the powers wher- 

 ever a European administration is established. 



This discussion gave Turkey an opportunity 

 to renew her claim of suzerainty over the 

 western coast of the Red Sea. The Porte dis- 

 patched a circular note to the powers, declar- 

 ing the Italian occupation of Massowah to be 

 a violation of treaties, and denying that the 

 mention of its possessions on the Arabian coast 

 only in the Suez Canal convention implies a re- 

 nunciation of its sovereignty over the Soudan. 

 Russia, as well as France, joined in the diplo- 

 matic protest of the Porte. Germany, Great 



