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THE SOUDAN QUESTION.

Now

OW that the victorious Anglo-Egyptian army, under the gallant generalship of the Sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitchener, has defeated the Khalifa and occupied his stronghold, and that Khartoum is once again within the borders of civilisation, the question naturally arises, What next? Is Great Britain, after spending so much treasure, and after dyeing the desert sand with so much of her best blood,* to repeat the tactics of 1885, and once again retreat; or is she to face the grave problem of holding what her arms have gained and securing for the unhappy Soudan a just and firm government, so that that country may rise from the murder and rapine of the past to a state of prosperity, happiness, and contentment?

Many, no doubt, will say that now Gordon's murder is avenged and British honour is retrieved, we are able-nay, even that it is our duty to wash our hands of the Soudan and, providing Egypt with a safe frontier, to allow the Soudanese to shift for themselves, thinking that now the Mahdi's power is broken it will never assert itself again.

I much regret the cry "Revenge," which to so many seems to be the dominant idea with regard to the operations just concluded. Men misjudge Gordon greatly if they think that he would have approved of such an idea. No; he would have been the last to suggest a bloodthirsty vengeance. True, in one of his last letters from Khartoum, just before his death, he urged his fellow-countrymen to crush the Mahdi's power. But why? Because he knew its hatefulness, the incalculable misery it had caused and would cause, and he longed

*The Anglo-Egyptian loss in battle from September 1882 to September 1898 has been in killed and wounded about 14,500; the Dervish loss, including wounded, some 45,000. This enormous loss does not include the immense number of people slaughtered by the Dervishes, which can never be ascertained.

to see the country freed from the evils of a vile rule and placed under the protection of those whose capacity he trusted to end the rapine and to rule the people in justice and in truth.

I do not propose to refer to the expedition sent to relieve Gordon, nor to the disastrous retreat and short-sighted policy which left the Mahdi free to devastate vast districts with fire and sword, and to cause enormous misery and death to hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. Deeply as I regret all this, I can see no useful purpose served in recriminations, but, having been requested by the Editor of the CONTEMPORARY REVIEW to give my views on the future of the Soudan, my purpose in writing is to try and see what responsibilities are now before this country, and to endeavour to ascertain, in the light of known facts and past experience, what her present duty ie, and what the probable result will be if the proposals which follow should be carried out.

The opinions I formulate are based upon a personal knowledge of all the districts in question, and are the outcome of discussions with Gordon, Emin, Gessi, Junker, and many European officials and native Mudirs, officers, and merchants who lived and worked in the Soudan up to the time of the Mahdi's rebellion.

Did space permit, it would be instructive to show the strange chain of events which, from 1798, when Napoleon created the Egyptian question, has gradually led this country to occupy Egypt and to fulfil Mahomet Ali's prophecy that sooner or later that country would fall under the supreme influence of Great Britain.* Interesting as this would be, the future must claim our attention. It is a fact that we are responsible for the progress of Egypt, and it appears to me that we are also morally bound to restore the comparative peace which existed in the Egyptian Soudan in 1880.

I think it must be admitted that it was the non-recognition by the Government of the gravity of the commencement of the Mahdi's rebellion which led to the misery of the past fourteen years. I know that when I returned from the Soudan in 1880 I called the attention of the Government to the seriousness of the situation there at that time, and pointed out that unless the discontent which was then plainly manifest was not immediately checked, and unless existing flagrant abuses were at once removed, the smouldering fires of discontent would break out and involve the whole Soudan in ruin.

In considering the future of the Sondan, before all else it must be made very clear that we have not to do with one vast area, where climate, country, and inhabitants are all alike. Far from it; we have

to consider the whole of the Nile Valley from Egypt Proper to the

Mahomet Ali said tɔ Burckhardt, "The great fish swallow the small, and Egypt is necessary to England. . . . . England must some day take Egypt as her share in the spoil of the Turkish Empire."

Victoria Lake, on the northern shores of which our Uganda Protectorate is situated.

There are three large areas, totally different in character: the first extending from the frontier of Egypt Proper to a line which may be roughly taken as 10° N. lat., including Kordofan and Darfur-an arid country inhabited by numerous Arab tribes; the second reaching as far as the Albert Lake (about 2° N. lat.) and including the Bahrel-Ghazal and Monbuttu districts a more fertile area, well watered and inhabited by negroes; thirdly, Uganda and Unyoro, where the germ of civilisation has been planted, but where religious strife and gross mismanagement have caused war, discontent, and even anarchy to a certain extent, which, however, we may hope will soon pass away if our officials are chosen with care and the country is ruled on the spot and not from Zanzibar.

We have to face the fact that, apart from Uganda and Unyoro— which I must leave out of the question now--all the Soudan has been more or less under the terrible rule of the Mahdi for the past fourteen years. The population in the Arab portion of the country has been more than decimated; the tribal systems have almost entirely broken up, and the former peace and comparative order which obtained until 1880-2 have been crushed out, so that, although at the time of Gordon's death the pacification and development of the country could have been accomplished with great rapidity, it will now only be possible very gradually.

It is true that the inhabitants will welcome the fall of the Mahdi's rule, but it will take a considerable time for them to settle down to peaceful occupations again, while the destruction of the former industries and trade, together with the fearful loss of life, must make a remunerative occupation of the country impossible at present. Years must elapse before even the moderate prosperity of former days will be attained, but that it can be attained I am very sure. In this connection it is well to note in passing that the Negro portion of the Soudan has been less affected by the Mahdi's rebellion than the Arab portion, and that there more rapid progress may be expected. It is for this reason that I strongly advocate the immediate re-occupation of that area. I remember well the difficulty which Sir Samuel Baker, and subsequently Gordon Pasha, bad in subjugating the negroes, and am sure that, in order to prevent their total relapse into barbarism, no time should be lost in re-establishing among them the principal stations formerly occupied by the Egyptian Government a task of comparative simplicity and one which promises more immediate commercial success than in the Arab portions of the Soudan, owing to the fact that the Negro districts have not been depopulated to any extent.

In advocating the re-occupation of the Egyptian Soudan, of course I premise that the former corruption of the Egyptian rule shall never

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