Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-07
Copyright. 1907. by Frank @. Carpenter)
Special Correspondence of The Star.
KHARTUM.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
KHARTUM.
AM just back from the palace. where
n have had long talk with Sir
Francis Reginald Wingate. the
sirdar of the Egyptian army and
thS governor general of the Sudan.
The sirdar is the ruler of the Sudan
a country one-fourth as large as al
Europe and four times the siz, OF any
principally in it excepting Russia. He has
more power than the car, and he can do
almost anything as to his country and
people. One of the chief officers in the
wars with the mahdi and the khalfa. he
won decoration after decoration for his
bravery and military services and was in
command of the operations which re-
suited in the death of the khalifa in 1900
1t was in that year that he took posses
sion of this country as sirdar and gov
ernOr general, and since then he has been
bringing order out of the chaos of this
part of Africa. He has pacified the war
ring tribes. has turned their lances and
guns into plowshares and shepherd $
crooks. and is now creating civilized con-
ditions where have always been barba-
rism. injustice, slavery and war. An ex-
plorer of note before he became governor
general, he has now his prosp ctors trav-
cling through every part of this vast re-
gion. and is laying out and starting the
railroad, canal, irrigation and other move
ments which will open it up and make it
one OF the live parts of the world.
The Sirdar in 1907.
The sirdar is now in his prime. He has
seen perhaps fifty years of hard-workng
life, but he does not look over forty five,
ard were it not that his hair and mustach .
ere mixed with silver. one would think
him much younger. His face is free from
wrinkles and his complexion rosy; his
eyes are full of light and his whole api
paarance indicates health and strength. A
great part of his career has been spent in
the saddle. He has not only Travelled over
the most of Egypt and the Sudan, but has
gone on diplomatic missions to Abyssinia,
and now holds close personal relations
win King Menelik and his leading off,
clals- The sirdar spends a part of every
year travelling by boat or on camels
through the several of his far-away prov
inces. and he has just recently returned
from long trip in Kordofan. He talks
freely about his country and he knows it
SO well that what he says is interesting.
An Undeveloped Empire.
During my conversation with his ex-
ceilency 1 asked him something as to the
possibilities of the Sudan, saying that
most people looked upon it as nothing
else than : vast desert He replied:
That idea comes largely from the
bleak and barren sands through which
the railroad takes travellers on their wav
10 khartum. They have also read of
the immense swamps of the upper N,Ie
ano, putting the two together, they look
upon the country IS only swami and
ne truth is the Sudan is an un-
developed empire as to its material re-
sources. 1t Is land of many climates
ana OF all sorts of soils. The desert stans
not FAR from Khartum and heyopS
mat is a region where the rainfall is suS-
hclent FOR regular crops. Still fnrther
SCUM the country has more rain than is
needed: and in the west are great areas
ht,ed Tor stock rearing
Take, for instance, the country aim.
!he Aoyssinian border and that wbJcS
Mes between the White and RIue Miles
ihose regions have been built IN in the
same manner as Egypt; and thew con-
tam all the rich fertilizing materials
Whlch nave made the lower Nile valley
one OF the granaries Of the world. The
ohiy dinerence is fhat the EGYPTIAN soil
py the cultivation and watering of thou,
SANDS OF years, has been leached of its
pest fertilizing elements; while thu soil
OF the Gezireh. as the region I have re-
ierred to is called. has hardly been