The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-07
BRITAIN HAS DONE SOME WONDERFUL
 THINGS FOR EGYPT
 AND HER PEOPLE
Desert Has Been Made to Bloom and a Bankrupt Country Made Pros porous by Good
 Government
By CLAIR PRICE.

By CLAIR PRICE.
 Carlo, May 10.-(SpeciaL)--In view of the fact that the United States may be asked to take an interest in the near east under mandate of the league of nations, Britains achieve ments in the course of similar task :n Egypt. should be of interest to Americans.
 It was in 1882 that Egypt came un- der the care of Britain. The country was then in state of the most ao- ject misery. Her wealth has always been almost exclusively agricultural, but at that time her fields were large ly uncultivated her towns were fall- ing into ruin, her inhabitants were It, orally being taxed to death. her gov ernnaent was bankrupt and on the up- per Nile there was hardly dog lett to howl for a lost master"
 The days when Egypt had, been the center of mighty empire seemed to be gone foreve. The days when the land of the Pharoahs was the graR- ary of the world were only memory To the small band of British officers and civilians who came here in lSs2 to reorganize the government. to re- establish the country's credit and 10 revive the half dead inhabitants. there seemed no possibilities in the country outside making it over into happier corner of Africa.
 Today, however, Egypt is completely convalescent. It is again a self-sup- porting and wealthy country. The in- k. pt,d the population is increasing, the gov ernm ent is rich and progressive and trade is flourshing. Egypt is no long CT a small corner of Africa Her pc culiar geographical position was never more important than it is today. Be- hind her is the great Sudan with it's unbroken highways extending into the lands about the equator some day Egy pt will be in direct railway corn- muncaton with the cape, and the ancient port of Alexandria will assume the role of commerce for which Alex andeI the Great intended it. Since the onening of the Suez canal in 1859. Egypt has become the all-important point on the route iron Europe to tLe Orient. She has always been the meet ing place of nations, but not until now has she found herself surrounded by the friendly countries of Palestine, Syria and the Sudan and linked by railways to all of them. German East Africa has passed into British hands and the other neighbors to the Sudan are also under allied control. Arabia is in touch with Egypt and the King of the Hedjaz is the close friend and any of wthe British. Egypt is no longer the sad emaciated country she was when the British came to her in 1882. Con- scious of her mighty past and stirred by great hopes for her future. she has thrown off the anemia and despair Of Turkish sezerainty and is resumng something of her ancient glory.
 How was it done?
 In the first place. Egypt has three assets-the Nile the sun and the fella- heen or peasantry who till her soil. "You will not find a race of men more accessible to progress, better tempered or harder working" said the late Sui- tan of Egypt.
 Before the British came, such parts of Egypt as were cultivated were ir- rigated by the basin system, ie, when the Nile flood comes down in July and August it was turned by short canals from the river into large basins Of many hundred acres in extent, en- closed by earthen embankments. There 1t lay for some weeks until the fall of the river enabled the water to run off again, and the silt-covered land was ready for the annual crops of mil let, etc. But under this system on.y one crop a year was possible except near the river, where primitive water lifting machinery made summer irrigA- tion possible. It was necessary, there fore to introduce an entirely differ ent method. known as perennial irri- gaton, under which the water was car ried by canals to great distances from the river all through the summer, and Hooded deeply as under the basin system. This and the Egyptian climate made 1t pes sible to go on producing one crop after another throughout the year.
 The new system of irrigation was, therefore, rapidly extended over most , s>of the Nile basin, but it had one great draw ck,4 viz, in flood time the cam als were filled bank high with the heavy silt bearing "red water" and when the flood went down part of the silt remained and filled up the canal bed to such a height that it could take no further water from the river. This accumulation of silt had to be scraped out every winter and this could only be done by the corvee or forced labor, which has prevailed in Egypt from the time of the pyramid builders down. A French engineer in 1893 put forward barrage scheme by which the waters of the Nile were to be raised, thus en- abling the water to enter the canals at a much higher level so avoiding much of the necessity for the winter corvees. The scheme was finished in 1861. but it began at once to show signs of serious collapse and was abandoned in 1867.
 Into this situation the British stepped.
 In 1883. Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff ao- peared in Egypt with a number of In- dian irrigation engineers. An expen- sive scheme to operate a system of huge pumps for lifting the Nile waters into the canals was stopped by him. and contrary to much advice he set about repairing the abandoned barrage. He succeeded and in 1884. the British
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