aspect; there are no trees here, but low bushes and stunted adeniums covered with lichen; very little water, but plenty of undulating grasscovered hills. It is curious that in this somewhat wild and at present uninteresting locality we found more traces of ruins and bygone habitations than we found in any other part of the island. About five miles from Ras Momi, and hidden by an amphitheatre of low hills on the watershed between the two seas, we came across the foundations of a large square building, constructed out of very large stones, and with great regularity. It was 105 feet square; the outer wall was 6 feet thick, and it was divided inside into several compartments by transverse walls. To the south-east corner was attached an adjunct, 14 by 22 feet. There was very little soil in this building; nothing whatever save the foundations to guide us in our speculations as to what this could be. Other ruins of a ruder and more irregular character lay scattered in the vicinity, and at some remote period, when Socotra was in its brighter days, this must have been an important centre of civilisation.

The hills all about here are divided into irregular plots by long piles of stones stretching in every direction, certainly not the work of the Socotrans of to-day, but the work of some people who valued every inch of ground, and utilised it for some purpose or other. The miles of walls we passed here, and rode over with our camels, give to the country somewhat the aspect of the Yorkshire wolds. It has been suggested that they were erected as divisions for aloe-growing; but I think if this was the case traces of aloes would surely be found here still; aloes are still abundant about Fereghet and the valleys of Haghier, but here near Ras Momi there are none. Near the summit of one hill we passed an ancient and long disused reservoir, dug in the side of the hill, and constructed with stones; and during our stay here we visited the sites of many ancient villages, and found the cave charnel-houses already alluded to.

Before leaving this corner of the island we journeyed to the edge of the plateau and looked down the steep cliffs at the Eastern Cape, where Ras Momi pierces with a series of diminishing heights the Indian Ocean. The waves were dashing over the remains of a wreck, still visible, of a German vessel which went down here with all hands some few years ago, and the Bedouins produced for our edification several fragments of German print, which they had treasured up, and which they deemed of fabulous value. Ras Momi somewhat reminded us of Cape Finisterre, in Brittany, and as a dangerous point for navigation it also resembles it closely.

We took a southern path westward again, and after a few days of somewhat monotonous travelling after leaving Ras Momi we again came into the deeper valleys and finer scenery of the central district

of the island, and found our way across the heights of Haghier to Tamarida again.

I should think few places in the world have pursued the even tenor of their ways over so many centuries as Socotra has. Yakout, writing 700 years ago, speaks of the Arabs as ruling here; the author of the Periplus tells us the same thing; and now we have a representative of the same country and the same race governing the island still.

Socotra has followed the fortunes of Arabia; throughout, the same political and religious influences which have been at work in Arabia have been felt here. Socotra, like Arabia, has gone through its several stages of Pagan, Christian, and Mohammedan beliefs. The first time it came in contact with modern ideas and modern civilisation was when the Portuguese occupied it in 1538; and this was, as we have seen, ephemeral. Then the island fell under the rod of Wahhabee persecution at the beginning of this century, as did nearly the whole of Arabia in those days. In 1835 it was for a short time brought under direct British influence, and Indian troops encamped on the plain of Tamarida. It was then uncertain whether Aden

or Socotra would be chosen as a coaling station for India, and Lieutenant Wellsted was sent in the Palinurus to take a survey of it; but doubtless the harbourless condition of the island, and the superior advantages Aden afforded for fortification and for commanding the mouth of the Red Sea, influenced the final decision, and Socotra, with its fair mountains and rich fertility, was again allowed to relapse into its pristine state of quiescence, and the British soldier was condemned to sojourn on the barren, burning rocks of Aden, instead of in this island paradise.

6

Finally, in 1876, to prevent the island being acquired by any other nation, the British Government entered into a treaty with the Sultan, by which the latter gets 360 dollars a year, and binds himself and his heirs and, successors, amongst other things, to protect any vessel, foreign or British, with the crew, passengers and cargo, that may be wrecked on the island of Socotra and its dependencies,' and it is understood that the island is never to be ceded to a foreign Power without British consent.

A more peaceful, law-abiding people it would be hard to find elsewhere such a sharp contrast to the tribes on the south Arabian coast. They seem never to quarrel amongst themselves, as far as we could see, and the few soldiers Sultan Salem possesses have a remarkably easy time of it. Our luggage was invariably left about at night without anyone to protect it, and none of it was stolen, and after our journeys in Southern Arabia the atmosphere of security was exceedingly agreeable. Money is scarce in the island, and so are jealousies, and probably the Bedouins of Socotra will remain in their bucolic innocence

to the end of time, if no root of bitterness in the shape of modern civilisation is planted amongst them.

It is undoubtedly a providential thing for the Socotran that his island is harbourless, that his mountains are not auriferous, and that the modern world is not so keen about dragon's blood, frankincense and myrrh as the ancients were.

J. THEODORE BENT.

DO FOREIGN ANNEXATIONS INJURE

BRITISH TRADE?

I have often thought how strange is the contrast between men in their individual and in their collective capacities. The individual Briton is the boldest, the most disregarding man as to danger you can find anywhere on earth; he never expects that evil is coming upon him or doubts his power to resist it. The collective Briton, however, is as timorous as a woman; he sees danger everywhere. If any nation increases its exports for a single year, the downfall of British trade is at hand. If any nation finds an outlet for its trade in some new or unexplored portion of the world, instead of rejoicing at the amount of natural resources which is proclaimed for human industry, he says there is a rival to whom our fall will be due. I entreat them to abandon this state of fear and to believe that which all past history teaches us-that, left alone, British industry, British enterprise, British resource is competent, and more than competent, to beat down every rivalry, under any circumstances, in any part of the globe, that might arise.1 THERE is a very widespread impression that the recent colonial activity of European powers has already had, and is destined to have in the future in a still larger degree, an evil influence upon the maintenance and expansion of British foreign trade. It is pointed out with truth that the area of possible new markets for the produce of European manufacture is steadily diminishing, while competition in the older markets of the world becomes each year more acute. European states are endeavouring to secure for themselves the monopoly of such new markets as remain by wholesale annexations. Africa, which even a few years ago appeared to offer all sorts of possibilities, is being mapped out into 'spheres of influence' within which the occupying power is to be left free to reap all the advantage it can, both political and commercial. The scramble for the

remaining markets of the world is in fact becoming fast and furious. It is not denied that into this scramble Great Britain has entered with at least as much vigour as any of her rivals, but it is pointed out that whereas Great Britain allows her competitors to share with her upon absolutely equal terms at all events the opportunities offered by her new territories, the first thing every other Power does

1 Speech of Lord Salisbury at the Annual Dinner of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, March 10, 1897.

is to erect a tariff wall round its new acquisitions for its own benefit and to the disadvantage of all competitors.

This is undoubtedly a point of great importance and cannot be made too clear.

It is a fact that the colonial policy of Great Britain-whether for good or evil-has not in recent times sanctioned the imposition of preferential duties in favour of the mother country.2 Whatever part of the earth's surface Great Britain annexes, she opens as freely to foreigners as to her own subjects, and to that extent she may be said to be a true pioneer of commerce wherever she goes. So far her unrivalled financial and (in a less degree) commercial position has given her a dominating influence in her own colonial markets, but that does not detract from the merit of having offered her competitors the same opportunities as are presented to herself.

It has, on the other hand, been the policy of other European countries in their colonial fiscal legislation to discriminate in favour of the mother country. Their views of colonial expansion are the views which were held in England until the early part of this century. Apart from a sentiment of which I shall presently speak, they value and maintain their colonies as a source of direct and exclusive profit for themselves. I am not concerned to criticise this policy one way or the other. It is one of the facts of politics which has to be accepted by statesmen and men of business. Foreign annexation means a tariff wall, a wall of varying height and varying solidity, but a wall all the same.

And, so far as one can judge, this policy is not likely to be speedily changed. Colonial expansion is in the air. It has become an essential part of the policy of the more progressive European states. They are realising-perhaps a little late in the day-that the future of the world belongs to the great states, the 'world states' as Seeley called them. In comparison with such empires as Great Britain and her colonies, the United States of America, and perhaps Russia, will have become in say fifty years' time, Germany and France without colonies must inevitably dwindle in importance and status. They might retain great military strength, they no doubt would retain. great intellectual and commercial vitality, but their influence outside Europe would necessarily decline until they came to take a secondary place in the life of the globe. It is certain that they have perceived this. The very movement which has brought about in Great Britain so striking a change in the views of all public men, and indeed of all educated persons, with regard to our colonies has had its counterpart in a less degree in France and Germany. Since the great war of 1870, France has set herself to build up with almost feverish haste a great colonial empire in Africa and Indo-China. Her Government

2 Our right to accept exclusive preferential treatment from our own colonies appears to have been surrendered in our treaties with Belgium and Germany.