The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-28
KHARTOUM REBUILT.

A New Cap1tal TOT me SouudH-l TdiIi-
 ways and Arc Lights in the Heart of
 the Desert.
 Another considerable, work undertak-
 en by the Government has been the re-
 building of the cities which the Der wishes had destroyed or had allowed to
 decay. Of these by far the most i'm portant was, of course, the rebuilding
 of Khartoum involving as it did the
 transference of the seat of government
 from the Dervish city of Omdurman.
 A variety of motives urged the nec-
 essity of this step: it was gratifying
 both to British and Egyptian national
 sentiment to see the restoration of the old capital of the Soudan undertaken
 almost as a matter of coarse in tri-
 bute to the memory of Gordon. im- mediately after the dispersion of the rebels who had sacked the city and taken the Pasha's life. It was undig- nified and therefore dangerous for a Government whose strength Is not in- dependent of its prestige to accept a capital from the Dervishes at second hand: to destroy the Mahdis city was the logical continuation of the policy which destroyed his body and his limb. Independently of these inducements, however, Khartoum was chosen on Its merits as the true national site of the capital of the Soudan. There Were not wanting those who urged the claims of the Khalifa's city; that the site of Omdurman was higher, drier, and healthier could not be denied The great expense, both to the Government and the people, of moving across the river was one which ought not to be lightly undergone. It was a military consideration, always paramount in the Soudan, that turned the scale. The strength of the fortified position at Khartoum would be so great that no future Mahdi, even though he came with Maxim guns, would ever again be able to plant the black flag of his je- had over the ruins of civilization.
 When it became known that 1t was Lord Kitchener's determination to re- build Khartoum, a host of claimants to the soil sprang up where previously there had been none. It was found to appoint commission, un- der the Presidency of Lieut.. Col. I1l dBC, tU upUIl lllCoS SOll- ficting claims and to award compen sation In eases where the land was required by the Government. In some cases the old title-deeds had been pre- served; in others these had perished, and the testimony of witnesses alone was available: in others again restitu tion had previously been made by the Egyptian Government in 1885. Assist | ed by two armours by two ancient mo- tables, Lieut.. Col. Drage sat for four months receiving claims and counter claims and issuing certificates to those who succeeded in establishing their ownership. This issue of certificates was followed in many instances by their sale for trihing sums to the Greek traders who had already ar rived upon the scene, and much of the most valuable land in the new city | passed thus at once into the hands of a few wealthy capitalists; striking | example of the necessity of the to the constitution of the infant community
 The whole city has been laid out on l a metropolitan scale. The river front | along the banks of the Blue Nile is | more than three miles long; the depth 1 Inland is nearly a mile and a half | The public buildings lie along the river bank. At the extreme southeast the | Gordon Memorial College, large red brick structure with shady galleries and porticoes, covering three sides of | l square, has far outstripped its schol- l lrs, and in a few months it will be l ready for work. In the centre of the | ines, on the exact site of Gordons | palace, rises the palace of the Cover lor General, now practically complet- d. It is a handsome Venetian-look-