translation, vol. ii. 1907); The Civil War in France (1871, reissued
1921); Revolution and Counter-Revolution or Germany in 1848
(Eng. 1896); The Poverty of Philosophy (Eng. 1900).- Of the works
of Engels the most important are : Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
(Eng. 1892), and Landmarks of Scientific Socialism (Eng. 1907).
Karl Kautsky, the leading exponent of political Marxism in Germany,
can be best studied in The Erfurt Program (Eng. 1910); The Social
Revolution (Eng. 1902); and in his attack on Bolshevism, Terrorism
and Communism (Eng. 1920). For the Communist exposition of
Marxism see N. Lenin, The Slate and Revolution (Eng. 1919), and
other works. Of books on Marx and Marxism the most important
are: Max Beer, The Life and Teaching of Karl Marx (Eng. 1921);
Achille Loria, Karl Marx (Eng. 1920), and for a hostile criticism:
E. von Bohm-Bawerk, Karl Marx and the Close of his System (Eng.
1898). Georges Sorel's La Decomposition du Marxisme (1908) and
Benedetto Croce's Historic Materialism and the Economics of Karl
Marx (Eng. 1914) are important detached studies. A much fuller
bibliography will be found in What to Read on Social and Economic
Subjects (Fabian Society, new ed. 1020) ; and reference should be
made to the bibliographies at the end of the articles on COMMUNISM,
GUILD SOCIALISM, SYNDICALISM. There is, of course, a very large
literature of the subject in almost every European language.

(G. D. H. C.)

SODEN, HERMANN, FREIHERR VON (1852-1914), German
biblical scholar (see 25.339), died Jan. 15 1914.

SOLDENE, EMILY (1840-1912), English singer and actress,
was born at Islington, London, in 1840. She had made her
debut in 1864 on the concert stage, and in 1871 appeared in
Genevieve de Brabant, her favourite role, and in La Fille de
Madame Angot in 1872. Her successes were mainly in opera-
bouffe, and she retired young from the stage. She published
one novel, Young Mrs. Staples (1896), and My Theatrical and
Musical Recollections (1897). She died in London April 8 1912.

SOLF, WILHELM (1862- ), German colonial politician,
and, at the time of the revolution, Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, was born Oct. 5 1862 in Berlin. He made a special study
of Sanskrit and Oriental languages, and, after a long sojourn at
Calcutta, returned to Germany in order to study political science.
He then entered the German Colonial Service and, after having
been employed in a judicial post in German East Africa, was
sent to Samoa, first as president of the municipal council (1899)
at Apia under the old " condominium " of Great Britain, Ger-
many and America and afterwards as governor of German Samoa
(1900). In 1911 he was appointed German colonial secretary and
achieved considerable success in the reform of the German
colonial administration. When Prince Max of Baden's Ministry



SOMALILAND



509



of desperation was formed towards the end of the World War,
Self was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on Oct.
3 1918. In this capacity it fell to his lot to conduct the negotia-
tions for the Armistice, first with President Wilson and then with
the Allied and Associated Powers. He continued to hold this
office as an " expert " under the revolutionary Socialist Govern-
ment of the Commissioners of the People, and did not resign till
Dec. 17 1918. In 1920 he was appointed German charge d'af-
faires and afterwards ambassador to Tokio. He was the author
of Weltpolitik und Kolonialpolitik (1918) and of Kolonialpoli-
tik, Mein politischcs Vermachtniss (1919).

SOMALILAND (see 25.378). The territorial division of So-
maliland between Abyssinia, Great Britain, France and Italy,
except for a comparatively slight readjustment of the Italo-
Abyssinian frontier, remained unchanged during the period
1910-21 . However, Italy obtained from Great Britain the promise
of the addition to Italian Somaliland of part of the Jubaland
province of British East Africa (Kenya Colony). Italy also
desired to acquire the port of Jibuti (French Somaliland), but
failed to do so (see AFRICA: History).

BRITISH SOMALILAND. From 1910 to 1920 the mullah Ma-
hommed bin Abdullah, popularly known in Britain as the " Mad
Mullah," continued to dominate the interior of the protectorate.
In March 1910 the British troops were withdrawn to the sea-
ports and a policy of " strict coastal concentration " adopted.
Officially arrangements had been made to enable the friendly
tribes to defend themselves from attack by the Mullah; in fact
the " friendlics " were not only systematically raided by the
dervishes, but also quarrelled among themselves. At the end of
191 2 a camel constabulary, 1 50 strong, was raised and under R. C.
Corfield checked inter-tribal fighting. In Aug. 1913 Corfield,
acting against instructions, engaged a raiding party of some 200
dervishes at a place called Dolmadoba, no m. S.E. of Berbera.
In the action Corfield was killed, his little force of 109 men had
over 50 % casualties and was compelled to fall back. G. F. Archer,
the acting commissioner, rode out from Burao (40 m. distant)
with an escort of 20 Indian troops and covered the retreat. The
dervishes proceeded to occupy some of the chief grazing ground
of the "friendlies" and the Mullah built strong forts at Jidballi
and Shimber Berris places in the S.E. part of the British pro-
tectorate, Jidballi being 220 m. S.E. of Berbera. In March 1914
dervish raiders reached the coast and fired into the town of
Berbera. Archer, who in May 1914 became commissioner of the
protectorate 1 in succession to H. A. Byatt, urged that duty
should compel Britain to safeguard the tribes in the protectorate
and further operations were authorized. Sheikh and Burao were
reoccupied and on Nov. 23 Maj. (local Lt.-Col.) T. A. Cubitt
defeated the dervishes at Shimber Berris. Cubitt having returned
to Burao, the dervishes reoccupied Shimber Berris. Here they
were again attacked by Cubitt on Feb. 3-4 1915, and after
severe fighting, partly in caves, were driven out and ail their
forts destroyed. There was no means of following up the Mullah,
nor any belief that his power had been crushed, though for over a
year after the destruction of Shimber Berris he remained quies-
cent. His headquarters were at Tale, towards the Italian fron-
tier, where, under the direction of Arab masons from the Yemen,
his followers built elaborate stone fortifications of great strength.

Subsequently the Mullah again overran the centre and
east of the protectorate, building more forts and making many
raids on the "friendlies." This state of affairs lasted until 1920,
when carefully planned and ably executed operations resulted
in the complete destruction of. the Mullah's forces. The Mullah
had, in Sept. 1919, suddenly moved northward from Tale to
Jidballi with most of his fighting men, establishing his own camp
in the hills at Medishe, 12 m. N.W. of Jidballi. This move, occa-
sioned by the hostility of the Mijertin Somalis, proved advan-
tageous to the British plans. The main attack was made from
the air, the force employed being one flight of DHg aeroplanes
under Group-Capt. R. Gordon. The ground troops were a
King's African Rifles contingent (700 rifles), the Somaliland
Camel Corps (700 rifles) and the ist loist Grenadiers, Indian

1 In Oct. 1919 the title was changed to that of governor.



Army (400 rifles). Lt.-Col. G. H. Summers was in command, the
whole operations being, apart from the initial attacks by the air
force, under the personal direction of Archer. Hostilities began
on Jan. 21 with an aerial attack on the Mullah's camp at Medishe
and ended on Feb. 12 with the flight of the Mullah, his eldest
son, a brother and four or five followers. The rest of his follow-
ers were killed or. captured, together with all his stock and prop-
erty of every kind. The killed included 7 of the Mullah's sons;
the captured, his 5 wives, 6 of his sons, 4 daughters and 2 sisters.
The British casualties were very slight 3 natives killed and 8
wounded. The cost of these operations was about 84,000. Their
success was primarily and mainly due to the Royal Air Force.
The dervishes, good fighting men, were demoralized from the
start by the attacks from the air and offered no serious opposi-
tion. They appeared not to know the character of aeroplanes; 1
when the first attack was made on Medishe the Mullah is reported
to have regarded the appearance of the machines in the air as a
divine manifestation. It is known that on their approach he col-
lected his people around him and awaited their coming under
the white canopy used on state occasions. The first bomb killed
an uncle of the Mullah's, who was standing by his side, and
singed the Mullah's clothing.

When the British captured Tale (Feb. 9) the Mullah was
already in flight, and he succeeded in eluding pursuit with the
small following named. He crossed the Haudh to Galadi. News
was received in the summer of 1921 that the Mullah had died at
Imi in the heart of the Ogaden country the previous Feb., de-
serted and destitute. The Mullah's defeat was regarded in
Somaliland as marking the deliverance of the country from 21
years of dervish oppression. Archer, to whose persistent advo-
cacy this result was due, was created a K.C.M.G.

The World War and the high prices prevailing in 1918-20 had a
marked influence on trade, the Somalis exporting large numbers of
sheep and goats for the Aden Field Force and many thousands of
camels for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Apart from this the
most valuable export was skins and hides, the Somali skins being of
very high quality. The great majority of the skins, especially the
sheepskins, went eventually to the American market. The chief
imports American grey sheeting, dates, rice, sugar and tea showed
a heavy decline in quantity during the war, but an increase in value.
Trade with Abyssinia continued, but the Zeila route could not com-
pete beyond Harrar with the railway-borne traffic through Jibuti.
In 1910-1 the total value of imports was 267,000 and of exports
247,000. In 1919-20 the figures were: imports 754,000, exports
346,000 (of which 134,000 was the value of hides). External trade
was mainly in the hands of Indians and Arabs.

Revenue was mainly derived from customs and was inadequate
to meet the cost of administration. The figures for 1910-1 were:
revenue 30,000, expenditure 99,000; for 1919-20 revenue 81,000,
expenditure 322,000. Deficits, incurred mainly for military pur-
poses, were met by Imperial grants in aid. There was evidence to
show that, with internal peace and a reasonable development of the
resources of the country, the protectorate would become self-support-
ing. It was known to contain oil-fields, favourably reported upon by
experts as long ago as 1914. A step towards opening the interior was
taken in 1920 when a motor road was made from Berbera (the capital
and chief port) to Lower Sheikh and from Upper Sheikh to Burao.

See R. E. Drake Brockman, British Somaliland (1917); H. F.
Prevost Battersby, Richard Corfield of Somaliland (1914) ; A. H. E.
Mosse, My Somali Book (1913); A. Hamilton, Somaliland (1911);
and the annual Colonial Office reports on the protectorate. The
account of the final overthrow of the Mullah is given in a supple-
ment to the London Gazette of Nov. I 1920.

FRENCH SOMALILAND. Situated on the western shores of the
Bab-el-Mandeb, French Somaliland is important as possessing
the only French port on the Suez Canal route and as being the
main artery of trade with Abyssinia. The pop. in 1917 was
estimated at 206,000. Jibuti, the port and capital, had 13,608
inhabitants, of whom 294 were Europeans (107 French).

The resources of the country, which is largely arid, are limited.
Date palms have been planted in the desert round Jibuti. Cotton-
growing was tried in the same neighbourhood but was abandoned.
On the higher ground there is rich grassland, on which the natives
Somali and Danakil have herds of camels, goats and black-faced
sheep. The Bahr 'Asal has been exploited since 1912 for its immense
deposits of salt; in 1918 the export was 11,500 metric tons. There is
also a considerable fishing industry, and mother-of-pearl figures
among the exports.

Jibuti is regularly visited by French, British and Italian steamers
and has a local service to Aden. In 1917 the steamers entered at



SOMERSET SOMME, BATTLES OF THE



Jibuti numbered 272, with a tonnage of 643,000. About 90% of its
trade is the transit of goods to and from Abyssinia, the railway from
Jibuti to Addis Abbaba being owned by a French company. In 1913,
before the railway had reached Addis Abbaba, the value of the tran-
sit trade was 1,636,000. In 1918, with the railway completed, the
imports destined for Abyssinia were valued at 1,433,000 and the
exports from Abyssinia at 2,622,000. There is also a trade in sup-
plying passing ships with coal, previously imported. Textiles, food-
stuffs and coal are the chief imports; the exports are the characteris-
tic produce of Abyssinia coffee, live stock, hides and skins, ivory,
rubber, beeswax, etc.

The colony is administered by a governor assisted by a council
composed equally of official and non-official members. The budget
for 1919 was balanced at 2,370,000 francs. Relations between the
Somali and Danakil and the French proved satisfactory, the tribes
being very lightly administered. A small military force was main-
tained for the security of Jibuti and the railway. The colony was on
jgood relations with its Italian, British and Abyssinian neighbours,
save for differences with the Abyssinian customs officials, whose
valuation of dutiable goods passing inwards was often arbitrary.
Some anxiety was caused in 1917-8 by the presence of Lij Yasu, the
deposed Emperor of Abyssinia, in the Danakil country, and by his
threats to the railway. His effort to raise the tribes against the
French failed.

See the Cote Franqaise des Somalis (annual reports by the French
Colonial Ministry), and L'Afrique Franfaise (monthly).

ITALIAN SOMALILAND. The efforts of Italy in Somaliland
during 1910-21 were concentrated upon the southern part of
their protectorate. By a royal decree of July 1910 this southern
region, Benadir and its hinterland, was constituted a Crown
colony, administered by a civil governor resident at Mukdishu
(Ilal. Mogadiscio), and divided into four " commissariats."
This region included the fertile valleys of the lower Juba and
Webi Shebeli and the good grazing land on the plateau between
those rivers. Dura was the main crop, but cotton and rice plan-
tations were formed along the Juba and aid given to Italian
colonization companies. The result was not great; the Somalis
preferred a nomadic life, while the agricultural classes, negroes
or semi-negroes, were few in number. This paucity of labour
was the most serious problem confronting the administration.

By the occupation of strategic posts and the building of roads
the Italians secured the safety of Benadir, and with this security
a considerable trade developed with Abyssinia, chiefly via Lugh,
on the Juba. But the absence of any harbours all the ports are
open roadsteads proved a great drawback, and to remedy this
difficulty Italy had obtained facilities at the harbour of Kismayu,
in British East Africa (Kenya), some little distance south of the
mouth of the Juba. That river formed the Anglo-Italian frontier.
On Dec. 24 1915 an agreement was reached for the appointment
of a permanent mixed commission to deal with customs, transit,
conservancy, navigation, irrigation and other purposes in the
Juba region. Italian desires in respect to the Juba were, how-
ever, of a wider character. It was believed that with complete
control of the lower Juba spoken of as a second Nile the
economic future of the colony would be assured, and in the treaty
with the Allies which preceded her entry into the World War
Italy secured inter alia a promise of the rectification of her
Somaliland frontier. Formal negotiations to that end were
entered upon in 1919, when Great Britain agreed to the cession
of Kismayu and of a strip of land which would give Italy both
banks of the Juba.

The northern part of Italian Somaliland remained under the
rule of Somali chiefs, of whom the most important was the Sultan
of the Mijertins, whose territory included the coast facing the
Gulf of Aden. The Mijertins, who number approximately 100,-
ooo, possess large numbers of camels, sheep and cattle, and their
country, as also Obbia and the Nogal territory, abounds in
plants which furnish gum-arabic, myrrh, frankincense, etc. The
Mijertins were near neighbours of Mahommed bin Abdullah, the
" Mad Mullah," who between 1905 and 1909 was settled in the
lower Nogal region. The hostility of the Mijertins finally drove
out the Mullah, who established himself at Tale, in the southeast
cor-ner of British Somaliland. The continued and unwelcome
attentions of the Mijertins induced the Mullah in 1919 to remove
farther into the British protectorate, while in 1920 the Mijertin
Sultan, Osman Mahmoud, assembled his warriors to prevent the
Mullah's reentry into Italian territory.



Italian relations with Abyssinia were satisfactory. Following
the Italo-Abyssinian convention of 1908 the frontier was delimita-
ted in ipu, tribal boundaries rather than physical features
determining the line chosen. In the north, where the frontier
reaches the southern limits of British Somaliland, the Italo-
Abyssinian frontier was fixed at 48 E., instead of 47 E., as
provided in the 1908 agreement. This gave to Abyssinia the
small portion of Ogaden tribal lands which had been in the
Italian protectorate, including Galadi.

The external trade, valued at 174,000 in 1908-9, had risen to
326,000 in 1912-3, and was 800,000 in 1918. Throughout this
period imports greatly exceeded exports, the exports in 1918 for
example being valued at 243,000 only. Imports are chiefly
cotton goods from Italy and food-stuffs. Skins form, in value,
75% of the exports. The expenses of administration exceed
revenue; the Italian grant in aid (119,000 in 1910-1) was
186,000 in 1920-1, when the budget was balanced at 440,000.
Of the expenditure one-fifth was for the military force, some
3,000 strong, sent from Eritrea, the men being Abyssinians.

A 1920 estimate put the total pop. as high as 650,000. Muk-
dishu had 14,000 inhabitants. Besides a few hundred Europeans
there are at the coast towns settlements of Arab and Indian
traders. Mukdishu was, in 1915, connected with Massawa by a
high-power wireless station. Surveys for railways had been made,
but no construction had begun up to 1921. There were in that
year some 1,500 m. of road in southern Somaliland.

See G. de Martino (sometime governor of the colony), La Somalia
Nostra (1913), and Italian Somaliland, a British Foreign Office
handbook, with bibliography (1920). (F. R. C.)

SOMERSET, ISABELLA CAROLINE [LADY HENRY SOMERSET)
(1851-1921), English philanthropist, was born in London Aug.
3 1851, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of the 3rd and last
Earl Somers. She married in 1873 Lord Henry Somerset, son
of the 8th Duke of Beaufort, at one time comptroller of Queen
Victoria's household, from whom she later separated. She
became well known as a temperance reformer and interested
herself deeply in the reclamation of inebriate women, with this
end in view founding the Duxhurst Farm Colony, near Reigate,
the first settlement of the kind in England. In connexion with
it she established a home for destitute children and a " chil-
dren's village " for saving infant life. Lady Henry Somerset
was for many years president of the National British Women's
Temperance Association, and made a reputation as an able
speaker. In 1894 she founded the Woman's Signal in the inter-
ests of women's work, becoming its editor, and she was also the
author of various children's books and many pamphlets and arti-
cles on social work. She died in London March 12 1921.

SOMME, BATTLES OF THE. Under this heading it is proposed
to deal with the principal battles which took place in Picardy
and southern Artois during the World War. The geographical
limits in which these battles took place may be roughly defined
as the Scarpe on the N., the Oise on the S.,the line Cambrai-La
Fere on the E., and the line Amiens-Creil on the W.

The strategic geography of this region is governed by the
course of the Somme between St. Quentin and Amiens; in the '
upper part of this course it runs S.-N., in the lower E.-W.,
and in that general course it continues to the sea. Thus from
Peronne, the point at which the river bends through the right
angle, to Abbeville, a water barrier divides opposed armies that
face N.-S., and separates each into well-defined tactical theatres
if they are operating towards the E. and the W. The upper
(or strictly the middle) Somme (Peronne-Ham) prolonged to the
Oise by the Crozat Canal, on the other hand separates the E.-W.
adversaries and either protects or hampers those operating in
N.-S. direction. Thus the operations which took place in the
region, profoundly influenced by the alignment of the Somme and
its tributaries, are in spite of their dissimilarity, properly desig-
nated " battles of the Somme."

In the first phase of the war, this region was traversed by
the German I. Army, and a number of local combats took place
between it and the forces that Joffre gathered, little by little, to
form his VI. Army and outflank the Germans in their wheel.



SOMME, BATTLES OF THE



More severe and continuous fighting took place between the
Oise and the Scarpe during the development of the opposed
northern wings in the " Race to the Sea."

Of this the battles of Lassigny, Roye, and Albert, which led
up to and even into, the battle of Arras (see ARTOIS, BATTLES IN)
formed the first phase.

In each locality or area the effort of each side to hold the
other frontally, while outflanking him to the N., produced an
ever-extending frontal battle that, after see-sawing to and fro,
produced the line of stabilization characteristic of the trench war-
fare period.

In 1915 the line of stabilization between the Oise and the
Scarpe was relatively quiet. And apart from a combat in Jan.
1916, in which the French lost possession of Frise, the line, as it
was left at the close of the " Race to the Sea " in 1914, was the
starting line of the great offensive of July i 1916.

I. BATTLES OF JULY-NOVEMBER 1916

The four months and a half of almost continuous fighting
which began with the great attack of July i 1916 mark a turning-
point in the World War in more than one respect. With July
i 1916 began that period of sustained and systematic Allied
pressure upon the enemy which, though interrupted in the spring
and early summer of 1918 by the desperate German counter-
offensive, in the end wore his resistance down. Before July 1916
the Allied offensives had been relatively brief interludes in a
long period of stalemate; from that date onwards it was the
periods when active operations were in abeyance which formed
the interludes. Further it is clear even from the grudging ad-
missions of the German commanders that this great struggle
materially affected the strategical situation as no earlier Allied
offensive had, that the strain which the maintenance of their
defence imposed on the resources and the moral of the German
armies exercised an important influence on the course of the
struggle. The actual gains of ground made by the Allies between
July i-Nov. 19 1916 were not large, but in making them they
established a moral ascendancy over their enemy and brought
home to the Germans the probability of defeat. And in this
struggle the British army had for the first time to bear the major
part: the French who fought on Sir Douglas Haig's right with
so much gallantry and efficiency played a part of the greatest
importance in the battle, but one as distinctly subordinate to
the efforts of the British as the British attacks in May and Sept.
1915 had been to those of the French.

To speak, as is the common habit, of "the battle of the Somme"
in 1916 is to fall into a natural but serious error. The operations
were a series of great battles, each surpassing all those of pre-
vious wars in magnitude and intensity, parts of a common whole
but still definite and separate operations for distinct purposes.
It is possible to distinguish four main phases in the operations:
first the winning of a position on the southern edge of the main
plateau between the Somme and the Ancre, a matter of three
weeks' hard fighting, embracing two attacks on a large scale
and many lesser intermediate operations; in the second phase,