The times., 1898-09-11
THE SOUDAN VICTORY
Some Results of the Destrue-
ti0n of the Deryishes.
OPINION OF AN EXPERT
A Former Colonel I'm the Array of
the Khedive Makes Clear Some
Facts About Khartoum and. om-
durmaa-Reasons for the sDcr-
ate Course of the Khalffa.

Khedive's army, writes about the splendid
victory of Sir Herbert Kitchener IN the
Soudan for the New York Times Within
three weeks he has talked with a Brit.-a
colonel in the London war Office He SAYS:
''Khartoum stands in the point where the
Blue Nile and the White Nile join. and
fronts on the Blue Nile Omdurman is on
the left (or wesD bank OF the White Nile.
northwest of Khartoum, and separated
from it by the Blue Nile. which, Just here,
is about 1,0e0 yards wide The two cities
are at least miles apart. When knew
them. Khartoum was town of 900 peo-
pie: it contained some buildings of cut
stone and many of brick and unburned
brick. 1t had cut stone quays. dock
yard an arsenal. considerable machinery.
for small repairs to boats. and engines.
and the like, and the means of making
powder and loading fixed cartridges Om-
durman was little more than name; II
was a landing place for Nile boats and a
point of arrival and departure for cara
vans trading between KhartOum and the
country west of the Nile / do not re-
member any houses other than straw huts,
although there may have been few small
mud houses, and there was almost no
permanent population
'T have before me as I write volume
compiled In the intelligence division OF
the war office, London. dated July Is. 1855.
giving the latest authentic information
about Khartoum and Omdurman- From
this l learn that Khartoum Is a complete
ruin: the dockyard alone is kept up and
communication between IL and Omdur-
man is maintained by submarine cable
Horked by former government telegraph
officials. Omdurman, on the contrary
has grown in fifteen years from nothing
to city said to have over 100, 600 inhab-
itants This / doubt; il would be enOr-
mOusly difficult to feed such a population
concentrated at any one place in the Sou
dan, and / should be surprised to know
that the population is over 10000 This,
however, is mere guesswork- The houses
OF the city are mostly straw huts, but
there are many mud and brick houses
and a few buildings OF cut stone The
official part OF the city is surrounded by
a great wall, between Loo and 5000 yards
long. and said to be about Is feet high
and IL feet thick, ana somewhere be-
tween six and twelve small forts are said
to have been built outside the wall At
two or three points near Ondurman and
and magazines.
1T may be asked why the KhaIifa did
not defend mis- position, instead Of march,
ing five or six miles norsh TO attack the
British in the open fields. One can cas-
lily see two good reasons The shells and
rockets would have set fire TO ais straw
city and in an hour it would have been
swept off the earth. Or, II the stronghold
inside the great wall had escaped this
dos ION havs. crf hax-
at the mercy of kitchener's artillery. The
Khalifa's guns were greatly inferior IN
range, IL not in number. 10 those of the
BTitish-Egyptian army: they are mostly
ritied brass pisces at least twenty-five
years old The Mahdi took few krupp
guns when Hicks Pasha's army was
destroyed, but presumably there can be
little ammunition left for these My
friend. the British CO onel. said that II was
feared that the Khahfa would make his
stand in the hills. northwest of Omdur-
man, and at least ten miles from the Nile
which would have made il hard to sup
ply and water the forces attacking him.
but apparently the Khalifa. the redoubta-
bic Osman Digna. and other generals, be-
haved with headstrOng stupidity. and did
Just what Kitchener most wanted them
to do All of this. however. we can Judge
better when We have more facts
1t seems safe to assume that the over
whelming defeat of the Khalifa is the
end of what we may still call Mahdfsrn.
II may well happen that among the wes-
tern Bagsara (cowheTdsl the Khalifa will
find refgue, 200 miles away from the
Nile, and that for years there will be
great areas of the Egyptian Souian
where the Khedive's power is not rec
oSnized. But over vast regions that pow
er will soon be established and probably
il VIII be done with little more fighting.
For years many OF the chiefs OF the
Soudan have been anxious TO break
away from the power of the KhaIifa. and
indeed many of the best of them were
reluctant TO join the Mahdi. Now that
that power is destroyed, we may expect
swift return TO their allegiance to the
Khedive.
''The regions which viii be brought un-
der the Khedive's rule will be along the
immediate Nile Valley as far south as il
seems best to send troops and steam
boats; the region up the Blue Nile for
some hundreds of miles and the fertile
plains between the two Niles, and, fur
ther. all the country between the Red
Sea and the Nile far south as the
northern frontier of Abyssinia.
.Over these great regions. many times
larger than the Egyptian territory north
of Wady Halfa, the British peace will
soon be established in the name Of the
Khedive- Again life and property will be
safe; indeed, safer than they were before
the rebellion; again the people of the Sou
dan will be able to TIL and trade and ac-
cumulate property. and they VIII speedily
have a better government than they ever
had before-the sort of government that
Gordon hoped to give them. 1t viii take
years for them to recover from the dread
ful effects OF the misrule OF the Khalifa
the famine. the murder. the pillage and
the disease. The population must have
decreased much in the last fifteen years,
and such little accumulations as the peo-
pie had made were long ago swept away.
but the recovery will begin at once At
least one trade route better than ever
existed before has been established by
the building of the railroad across the
Korosxo desert, and we may reasonably
expect that the railroad from Suakrn to
Berber, or some other Nile point, will
soon be built.
"One OF Gordon's first works when ne
went up to the provinces of the equator as
the head of the Nile was 10 establish
steamer service between KhartOum and
Lado. There is an unbroken reach of good
water. nowhere less than feet draught.
and generally considerably more, for 1,of9
miles as the Nile logs. or for more than
| 10 degrees of latitude This steamer serv-
| ice can now be re-established. and the old
equatorial provinces can be brought with
| ell from Cairo
No Trifi---.
CFrom the e. .ssst1
| .'of course" he said ~ n of-hsnd way. at
Tr...v~ r1nrr 4