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Show "FAME A FICKLE JADET POPULARITY OF KITCHNEft IS WANINO. Crlllrt.. IIU Campaign AITalra In tho Knndan In Kuril fchapo That No Important Im-portant K.aultt Are I'omii.U Soon la Is IrUh. (London letter) It Is Impossible to deny that Lord Kitchener la mpldl) loslug much ut that popularity which rnuwl him to bo so exlmslvely lionized when list In Hngland, Scarcely a week paste without with-out somo new point being raised against blm, nnd It must tie confessed that In the majority ot Instance he haa found himself, so far as It Is kssI-blc kssI-blc to see. In Hie wrong, Several years ago the English government with a great flourish of trumpets abolished throughout Hg)pt the Iniquitous corvee, cor-vee, or forced lalior system by meana of which peasants nnd arllssns were torn from their home and forced to labor on public work for months sometimes some-times years together, without pay, and receiving nothing but their nourishment. nourish-ment. The Sues ranal waa constructed construct-ed almost entirely by means of labor of this character, thousands of the I'e-laheen I'e-laheen perishing under the whip of the taskmaster. Indeed, whenever any question has arisen as to the nature of the reforma Instituted by thn Kngllsh In Kgypt, the abolition of forced labor has always been died a the most Important Im-portant It would seem, however, that It has been revived by I-ord Kitchener, Kitchen-er, for the latter Is building the extension exten-sion ot the Soudan railroad, as well as rebuilding Khartoum, nnd fortifying the various ixilnts In the Soudan, by means of forced labor. The forcing of tho labor Is done In n slightly different fashion namely, by means of military conscription. The civil governor nnd provincial authorities of Iiwer Kgypt are railed upon to furnish a certain quota of men for military service, and It Is Impressed Impress-ed upon them that artlsana and mechanic me-chanic are the men ot whom tho army lands In principal need, These men are torn from their families and from their homes, where they have been making from 10 to 20 plastrea a day at their respective trades, are sent up the Nile thousands of miles away for a term ot several years, and when they reach their destination nro set In work at their trades for the benefit ot tbo government, receiving as sole remuneration remun-eration their military pay ot one piastre pias-tre and rations, Of late the demand ot Lord Kitchener for recruits ot this kind Is mora excessive than ever before, be-fore, and the natlvea are gradually becoming be-coming convinced that Kngtand'a much vaunted abolition ot the rorvco labor waa merely a tham, and that It continues con-tinues tinder another name The true T.aoon thy thoro-to lWw odvonoo against the khalifa until next autumn Is because of the 0,000 Egyptian troops that Lord Kitchener haa now under his command at Khartoum, who are the only ones available for a march upon the khalifa. Cluro upon 7.000 are entirely Iresh and untrained recruits, who have never been under fire before, nearly all ot the Kgyptlan and black regiments that were promt nt the battlea of the Atbant and of Oindur-man Oindur-man having since that time completed their term of service nnd been muttered mutter-ed out of the army. In addition to this the rondlllou ot the Nile and tha absolute abso-lute Impossibility by reason of cllnia-tlo cllnia-tlo conditions ot employing Kugloh troops until autumn render any move gainst the khalifa Impracticable. This is most unfortunate, for every day that passes without his being atlacktd and crushed by Ixird Kitchener tends to Incresse his power and prestige among the nations of the Soudan who natur-all) natur-all) ascribe his Immunity to fear on the part of the Kngllsh and to his alleged al-leged supernatural lowers. No little tommrnt has been excited by the fact that when I.ord Kitchener encountered the khalifa he will bo without one of his former chief ofllcers and principal lieutenants by bis side Archibald Hunter, (leu Itundle, Col Macdonald, den. Hallampart and Hit Hngilsh chief of the Kgyptlan cavalry have all left blm, nnd accepted employment em-ployment in Kngland and In India Col, Sir Reginald Wlngate ho ceased to be the chief of tho Intelligence department und, as chief of start, Is OKN KITCHKNKH. now forced to remain permanently at Cairo, while Slatln Pasha, who spent to many )ears us n captain of tho dcr-vl..hM dcr-vl..hM at Omdurman baa thrown up In disgust hla rominlsslnn In the Kgyptlan army, his luutlous remark here last week concerning I,ord Kitchener Kitch-ener and hla policy making It clear that he did not part on altogether friendly terma with his former com-mandlng com-mandlng officer Lord Kitchener, when last here, was bo much llonlred that there was hound to bo a reaction It has now set In, and Is dally becoming stronger. |