RECONSTRUCTING KHARTUM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10133, 6 December 1910, Page 7

RECONSTRUCTING KHARTUM.

At the meeting of the Town Planning Congress, Lord Kitchener presided, and the first paper read was one by Mr W. H. McLean, municipal engineer, Khartum. In the course of his speech Lord Kitchener dealt with the difficulties experiences in reconstructing Khartum on sanitary lines. He continued : It is not easy for you to form a fair conception of the difficulties that have had to he overcome before a scheme

of this sort could be carried out in the centre of Africa. First and foremost careful consideration had to be given to the susceptibilities of a naturally uneducated Moslem population, to whom such ideas are absolutely foreign, and to whose conservative minds most necessary modern regulations are repugant. I believe I am correct in saying that no trouble- on this account has arisen, and that the native population have agreed with the measures adopted, ! and now realize the fact that reasonable regulations mean increased length of life and increased prosperity. That in comparison with former tonditions a revolution has been effected is beyond dispute. The old Khartum was an African pest-house, in which every tropical disease thrived and was rampant; how malaria is almost though misquito curtains are not in use; and last year there were only 1) cases of malaria in a town of 50,000 inhabitants. Ido not think that such results linvo been achieved in any other British dependency, and this excellent work in Khartum does not stand alone in the Sudan, where sanitary conditions generally prevail, and demonstrate to the thorough efficiency of the administration of the country.