Britain and the Sudan.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7078, 25 February 1893, Page 2

Britain and the Sudan.

An authority on K gyptian affairs, in a book recently published, says the evacuation of the Lucian was a terrible, even a shameful business. He saya “ There wore a number of people who even coemed to persuade themselves that, iu retiring, and compelling Egypt to retire, from the Sudan, wo were performing a peculiarly humane, generous, and Christian act. In reality it is difficult to imagine a subject less suited for moral selfcongratulation* Personally I am convinced that not only the original decision to abandon the Sudan at the end of 1883, but even the withdrawal of the British troops from Dongola after the Nile expedition in ' 1885, was fully justified by the circumstances of the case. The defence of both those decisions should, however, be baaed, not upon their moral loftiness, but upon their material necessity. . . . Still, while admitting the

stern necessity of retreat, and while admiring the sagacity which recognised and the deter minatioa which executed it, we must surely feel that that necessity was, from the point of view of humanity, deeply regrettable. It ia not a pleasant reflection that the former dominions of Egypt io the are perhaps the only portion of the world where civilisation has, during the last fifteen yeora, distinctly retrograded—the one region deliberately given back to barbarism. And it is painful to i think that this dark page in Egyptian history belongs to that chapter of it which records the fortunes of Egypt while under the influence of Great Britain.” As to the future of the abundant provinces he says : —“ There can be no permanent rest for Egypt as long as a reign of explosive barbarism still prevails from Suakin to the Darfur, and from Wadi Haifa to Wadelai. The offensive power of that barbarism may wax or wane—it is certainly on the wane at present—but it is always a potential source of incalculable mischiefs,” He suggests a new and grave source of disquiet for Egypt as things are, namely, the improbable but entirely possible event of some attempt being made, if a civilised Power succeeded in establishing itself from the south on the Upper Nile, to divert the river at that remote part for irrigation purposes. Of course this would simply wipe Egypt as a. habitable and cul< | livable country off the map of the world, |