The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-11

The Soudan, where the English hero Gordon waited in vain the relief that MT. Gladstone never sent-an error. by the way, that caused MT. Gladstone to change from prime minister of the Brit 1sh Empire to a retired country gentle man in the neighborhood of Folkestone. Suffo1k-is about to undergo a trans formation from barren. shifting sands. more treacherous and less hospitable than the waves of the North Sea- to veritable garden. A succession of har- vests and pleasant reaches of cultivated fields will greet the traveller along that railway which Kitchener pushed from the junction of the Blue and the White Niles. straight across the sands to Khar- toum, and there avenged the death of Gordon. In the Soudan, when it rains, the stolid Mohammedans fall on their knees and pray. Such events are told and retold from one generation to an- other. Tn other words. scientists calcu- late that it rains in the Soudan proper about once in every 100 years.
 The transformation of the Soudan from an arid sand blasted desert to one of the most fertile countries of the world. 1t is expected. will require five years of hard labor. about $50 100000. and force of some 300 European engineers and overseers and probably from 10000 to 10000 fellaheen The tremendous change in the prosperity of Egypt is ow- ing to the marvellous engineering which has enabled the British to dam the Nile in several places and by the construction of regulators to make it possible for the Valley of the Nile to secure a regu- lar and certain irrigation This means that the famines which enabled Joseph to gain the favor of the Pharaoh by his true Jewish forethought and commercial ability are now a thing of the past in Egypt. The lean and fat kline have been replaced in modern Egypt. under the sagaeious ruling of Lord Cromer, who. in the name of the Khedive, rules Egypt and keeps in his embroidered pocket the great key to the Suez approach to India by a constant succession of well-fat- tened beeves. More than that. without vexatious taxation. the Egyptian fellah has been able to pay more than the in- terest of the bonds and stocks issued to secure the funds of the irrigation in Egypt proper.
 But the Soudan, which is separated from Egypt by the lofty cliffs of the Nile Mountains. and which is really strong depression which leads up to the slightly higher desert of the Sahara presents a problem in irrigation far more difficult Nevertheless, the engi- neers, who for years have been studying the possibilities of the Blue Nile in con nection with irrigating the Soudan, have solved the question. Sir William Gar stin, who is at the head of the depart- ment of irrigation in Egypt under Lord Cromer, after studying the reports made to him by Engineers c. D. Dupuis and P. M. Tottenham. has grouped the vari- ous engineering and scientific problems in connection with irrigating the Sou dan under the following heads:
 Open dam near Wad Medani. on the Blue Nile.
 Dam and storage reservoir near Ro- saires, on the Blue Nile.
 River Cash irrigation.
 Dam and storage reservoir near Khasm-el-Girba. on theAtbara River
 Storage reservoirs on the Dinder and Rahad Rivers.
 Storage reservoirs on the Upper Att bara.
 WHERE THE WATER COMES FROM.
 The water. which it is proposed to store and gradually let drivel down during the dry season in the bed of the Blue Nile. actually descends from the heavens over a large section of Abys- sinia- As a result the British fertiliza- ton of the Soudan practically and po- litically depends upon the consent of Emperor Meneiik, the most potent bar barrie and altogether crafty ruler of Abyssinia. Menelik withheld his con- sent for sometime. In the first place, the Soudan was the natural and provi- dential guarantee against his future ab- sorption into the nav of the British lion. With cultivated and consequent ly populous and more or less civilized Soudan, Abyssinia would occupy the now historical and traditional post in British diplomacy of being the next nat