The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1932. EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1932. EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.

A report from Cairo last week stated that the Government of Egypt luid reopened negotiations widi Great Britain in regard to the control of the Sudan. r l he failure of the at-

tempt by the British Government in 1929-20 t-o establish a fresh AngloEgyptian treaty was due, it may be recalled, to the refusal of the Waitlists to accept the draft treaty as it related to the administration of me Sudan. Mr Henderson, the Foreign Secretary at that time, made an offer which represented “the extreme limit” to which the British Government was prepared to go in meeting Egyptian demands on this question. It was to reaffirm the status of Egypt in the Sudan, as p.ovided m the Condominium cf 1889, and to allow the Egyptian Government to send a battalion into the territory. The refusal of the Egyptian Government to accept this proposal seemed soniewh j. inexplicable. The AngluEgvptian Condominium has survived in name only since 1924, when the Egyptian gairison was expelled auer the murder of Sir Lee Stack, and the treaty would virtually have restored the previous Egyptian -status. But in their attitude town ids the British occupation of the Sudan the Egyptians have never been prepared to agree to a compromise of the only kind which Great Britain is prepared to offer. Egypt covets the territory, and apparently cannot realise that Ithe British Government is sincere in its repeated declarations that it will never abandon the Sudan nor tolerate any attempt to disturb the 1 territory. The attitude of Egypt appeals- to he based on a specious claim that the Sudan is Egyptian. by right of conquest. To this the obvious reply is that Great Britain hi’s also conquered the Sudan, by force of arms, on more than one occasion, but has never shown any desire to annex the territory. In recent years the Egyptian Government has made the more specific claim that possession of the Sudan its necessary in order to s eme the country water supply. It is a wholly untenable claim and is absurd in view of the fact that since the British undertook developmental works in Hie Sudan the water supply of .Egypt lias been more reliable than nit any time ill 11 ic past. Ihe main .I'oitsoii for the refumil. of Great Britain to allow Egypt' to obtain control of the Sudan re. ts, however, on the fact that Egypt has proved herself unable to govern the territory 'satisfactorily- The Sudan under the British Administration has commenced a new chapter far different from its previously troublous history. Development has been interrupted only hv eensons in which the Nile waters have been low. order has been maintained, and the conditions of work have been improved, ft might, in fac"T, be said that of all the successful colonising undertakings of Great Britain that in the Sudan has been the most striking in its reclamation of a wilderness and its changing of the lot of a mixed population from poverty and disorder t 0 peace and prosperity. The Sudanese themselves are very conscious of their <rood fortune, and have an utter dislike of Egyptian interference. The Egyptian Government apparently fails to recognise, also, that the British Administration has always safeguarded the considerable material Egyptian interests in the Sudan. The attempt to obtain some concessions for Egypt in the territory additional to those which have been offered and rejected is not likely to move the British Government from a policy which has been eon st an 11 v reaffirmed.