The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-26
TRAGEDY OF THE SUDAN
WITH KITCHENER'S ADVANCE ON
KHARTUM THE CURTAIN FELL.
An Undertaking. in Which English
Honor Was Finally yindicated-
Future of the Country.
c. W. Stevens. in London Mail.


the Sudan is played out. Sixteen years of
toilsome failure, of toisome, slow success.
and at the end we have fought our way
triumphantly to the point where we began.
1t has cost us much, and ii has profited
us-how little? 1t would be hard to count
the money. impossible to measure the blood.
Blood goes by quality as well as quantity;
who can tell what future deeds we lost
when we lost Gordon and Stewart and
Earle, Burnaby, who rode to Kiva and
Owen, who rode Father O'F1ynn? BY shot
and Steel by sunstroke and pestilence by
sheer wear of work, the Sudan has eaten up
our best by hundreds. OF the men who es-
capped with their lives hundreds more will
bear the marks of its fangs till they die;
hardly one of them but will die the sooner
for the Sudan. And what have we to show
in return?
At first YOU think we have nothing, then
you think again and see we have very
much We have gained precious national
self-respect We wished to keep our hands
clear of the Sudan; we were drawn unwill-
ingly to meddlie with it; we Numbered when
We suffered Gordon to go out; we tiddled
and failed when we tried to bring him back
We were Inundated and we were out OF
pocket; we had embarked in a foolish ven
ture and it had turned out even worse than
anybody had foreseen. Now this was sure
ly the very point where a nation of shop
keepers should have cut its losses and
turned to better business elsewhere. If we
were the sordid counter-jumpers that
Frenchn1en try to think should have
ruled a red line, and thought no more of
worthless land, bottomless for our gold,
thirsty for our blood. We did nothing such.
We tried to- but our logged fighting dander
would lot let u.s. We could not sit down
till the defeat was redeemed. We gave
more money; we gave the lives of men we
loved-and we conquered the Sudan again.
Now we can permit ourselves to think of it
in peace.
The vindication of our self-respect was the
great treasure we won at Khartum, and 1t
was worth the price we paid for it. Most
people will hardly persuade themselves there
IS not something else thrown in. The trade
of the Sudan? For now and for many years
you may leave that out or the account; The
Sudan is a desert, and a depopulated desert.
NorthWard of khartum 1t Is a wilderness;
southwark it is d devastation. II was al
ways a poor country. and 1t always must
be- Slaves and ivory were its wealth III
the old, time, but now ivory is all but eX-
terminated ana slaves must be sold no more.
Gum arabic and ostrich feathers ana Don Don
COLA dates will hardly buy cotton stuns
enough for Lancashire TO feel the dlnerence.
From Halfa to above Berber, where ram
never falls the Nile only ticks the lip OF
the desert. The father of Egypt is the step
father of the Sudan.
A POOR COUNTRY.
With the help of water wheels and water
hoists a few patches of corn and fodder can
be grown, enough for a dotted population
on the bank. But hardly anywhere does the
area of vegetation push out more than a
mile from the stream: oftener it is a matter
of yards. Such a country can never be
rich. But why not irrigate? Simply be-
cause every pint of water you take out OF
the Nile. for the Sudan means a pint less
for Egypt. And it so happens that at this
very moment the new barrages at Assuan
and ASSiut are making the distribution OF
water to Egypt more precise and scientific
than ever. Lower Egypt is to be enlarged;
upper Egypt is, in part at least, TO secure
permanent irrigation independent OF the
Nile mood, and herewith two crops year
This means a more rigid economy OF water
than ever, and who will give thought 10
buckets fat Egypt will never miss, and that
it may take; no more.
AS for the southwark lands. they get rain,
to be sure, and so far they are cuitivable
Only there is nobody left TO cultivate them
For three years now the Egyptian army has
been marching past broken mud novels py
foundations, Dead sea fruit grows rankly
within their walls Sometimes, as in old
shops-quite ruined and empty: Here lived
the Sudanese whom the khalifa has Killed
out. And in the more fertile parts OF the
Sudan it is the same. Worse St1Il-1n that
the very fertility woke up the cupidity of
the Baggara, and the owner was driven out,
sold in the slave market, shipped up the Nile
to die of FashOda fever, cut to pieces, cruel
fed, impaIed-anything you like so long as
the Khalifa's acknowledgment got his land.
In KordofaE, even, of old days, lions in bad
years would attack villages in bands; to-
day they openly dispute the mastery of crea-
ton with men. From Abyssinia to Wadai
sWelters the miserable Sudan-beggarly,
empty, weed-grown, rank with blood
1t will recover; with time, no doubt, but
it will recover. Only meanwhile, 1t Will
want some tending There is not likely to
be much trouble in the way of lighting; in
the present WEAKNESS of slaughter the peo-
pie will be but too glad to sit down under
any decent government. There is no rea-
son-unless it be complications with outside
powers, like France or Abyssinia-why the
old Egyptian empire should not be reoccu-
pied up TO the Albert Nyanza and Western
Darfur. But if this is done-and done it
surely should be-two things must be re-
membered. First it must be militarily ad-
ministered for many years to come, and that
by british men, Take the native Egyptian
official even to-day No words can express
his ineptitude, his laziness, his helplessness.
his dread of responsibility. his maddening
red-tape Journalism. His panacea in every
unexpected case is the same 1T must be
put in writing; must ask for instructions
He is no lonper corrupt-at least, no longer
so corrupt as he was-but he would be If he
dared The native officer is better than the
civilian official. but even with him 1t is the
exception to find a man both capable ana
incorruptible. To put Egyptians. corrupt
lazy, timid often rank towards, to rule the
Sudan would be to invite another Mahdi as
soon as the country had grown up enough
to made him formidable
STERN RULE NEEDED.
The Sudan must be ruled by military law
strong enough to be feared, administered
by British officers just enough to be re-
spected. For the second point it must not
be expected that it will pay until many
years have passed. The cost of military
administration would not be very great, but
it must be considered money out of pocket
The experience of Dongola, whence the
army has been drawing large stores of
dhurra, where the number of water-wheels
has multiplied itself enormously in less than
a couple of years, shows well enough that
only patience is wanted. The Sudan will
improve; it will never be an Egypt, but it
will pay its way. But before all things you
must give it time to repopulate itself.
Well, then, If Egypt is not to get good
places for her people, and is to be out of
pocket for Observation-Disclosures much does
Fgypt profit by the fall of Abdullahi and
timaby. For as the master-gain of Eng
land is the vindication of her self-respect.
so the master-gain of Egypt is the assur-
ance of her security. AS long as Dervish
frontier, Egypt was only half a state. She
lived in a perpetual war footing. Her
finances are Dinched enough at the best;
every little economy had to go to the sir
miserly-of public money as the sirdar. Dut
even so he was spending EgyptS all. Tnat
strain will henceforth be oosened. Egypt
will have enough work for five years in the
MOI haT xrtn we IL