Notwithstanding the pacific agreement with the Mullah, effected in 1905, troubles on the Somali border have continued, because of his attacks on friendly tribes. Early in 1909 it was announced that the British forces in Somaliland were to be increased, but that there was no intention to embark on any expedition against the Mullah. A despatch from Bombay, India, on the 3d of January, said: "Further operations against the Somaliland Mullah are strongly deprecated. It is impossible to conduct a successful campaign, owing to the difficulty of obtaining supplies, unless a light railway 200 miles long is built to Bohotle. The Mullah, who is an able man, is not believed to be anxious to engage in fresh hostilities with the British, but he is determined to dominate the Hinterland. Experts consider that no new movement on the lines of the last campaign would produce a satisfactory result. The Mullah’s strength is unknown, but it is probably great, as his camp sometimes covers ten square miles. His mobility is astonishing, and he can always elude our troops. Our present advanced outpost is Burao, 80 miles from Berbera, where there is a small force of the King’s African Rifles. The country is practically worthless, and the best course, probably, is to hold the coast and to leave the far interior severely alone. The friendly tribes cannot be further effectively protected without permanently employing a large force. Minor operations are now merely a waste of money." AFRICA: Sudan: Suppression of a new Mahdi. A new Mahdi proclaimed himself in Southern Kordofan in November, 1903. He was a native of Tunis, named Mahomed El Amin, who had twice made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Colonel Mahon, the Deputy-Governor of the Sudan, on hearing of Mahomed’s proclamation, started instantly from Khartoum, with 200 cavalry, sending orders to El Obeid for 200 infantry, with Maxims, to meet him near Tagalla. With this force, after a five days march, through the desert toward the Tagalla mountains, he caught the Mahdi, took him to El Obeid and tried and hanged him straightway. AFRICA: Population. Lord Cromer, in his annual report, 1904, estimated the population of the Sudan, within the British-Egyptian Condominium, at no more than 1,870,000, to which number it had been reduced by war and disease from former estimates of 8,525,000, prior to the Mahdi domination. See, also, ALGIERS, CONGO, EGYPT, MOROCCO, RHODESIA, SOUTH AFRICA, etc. AGLIPAY, Padre Gregorio: His secession from the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902. AGRAM TRIALS, The. See (in this Volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1908-1909. AGRARIAN INTEREST, in Germany: Its triumph in 1909. See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1908-1909. AGRARIAN LAW, The Russian.