The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-07

corvee rapidly dimlnfShedf the area uh der irrigation rapidly increased ana
 the annual loss to, the revenue from | "sharaki' land which pays no land tax because 1t has received no water also 1 steadily diminished.
 But the demand for water went on l in Egypt
 The barrage had made the fullest , possible use of the actual supply Tn the Nile. It was necessary to increase tfat supply by storing up the surplus of tne 1; flood to eke out the summer supply The plan adopted was to erect a large dam to hold back part of the enormous flood wastage In storage reservoir This was the Assuan dam, which is not a regulating dam like the delta barrage, but a great storage reservoir It was completed in 1909, and within a few years it had repaid it's whole cost. With its completion, the system of Nile irrigation was for | the time being complete and the Nile from Assuan to Cairo became one closed lock, 554 miles long.
 When the flood comes down, the river and canals are, of course, open throughout and the bulk of the, flood rushes straight through to the sea, tEe j, part actually used for irrigation on I the way being relatively small. But | as the floor falls. the sluices of the | Assuan dam are gradually closed down and the dam is filled. the sluices re- l maining sufficiently open to allow the
 normal supply to pass through. Then
 as the spring approaches and the river | level falls, the delta barrage sluices l are gradually closed down. and when.
 owing to the fal of the river, it be-
 comes necessary to close them alto ] gether. the sluices at Assuan are grad ually opened and the water is released
 l from the storage reservoir to maintain | the falling level in the river. So com plete is the utilization of the river sup
 i ply that in the height of summer the 1 bed of the river near it's mouth De- comes absolutely dry, and temporary 'sudds" of earth have to be erected U l prevent the small trickle taht remafns ! from being turned salt by the inflow |, of the sea.
 This wonderful system was later added to by the erection of further barrages tt Assiut and Esna in upper E0gypt and at JZftah in lower Egypt to feed other canals taking off from these points. The result was that the whole of Egypt was gradually brought within the reach of a permanent water sup
 ply and the productive capacity of the country and the wealth and well being of the fellaheen were steadily in creased. Not only was the water sup ply everywhere increased, but the level at which it was given was raised so that the greater part of the country now received the water at such a height in the canals that it was pos sible to irrigate the lands by free flow" irrigation. i. e., without raising it further by any of the primitive ap- pliances which used to be peculiar to the Egyptian landscape.
 I In 1913. it became necessary as a re- suit of the lowest flood recorded in Egypt for 1S0 years. to look elsewhere l for an additional supply of water. De- I velopments in cotton growing in the Sudan led irrigation engineers to look | in that direction. Here in the Sudan l the flood on the Blue Nile comes down | from the Abyssinian mountains early 1 in the summer and, owing to the steep gradient of the river bed, with such a ! force that when it meets the more slug 1 gish White Nile, it actually dams back | the latter and monopolizes the channel below Khartum for sometime. Then. | as the Blue Nile begins to fall, the pent-up flood of the White Nile comes 1 in, and following on the back of the Blue Nile often produces a kind of sec ond flood in Egypt.
 1 Here, then, were great possibilities. i The floods of the White Nile were ac~ tually lost to great extent because l they Spread out inf the wastes of the 1 Sudd" huge areas of papyrus-covered marsh where the loss by evaporation was very heavy. By the erection of another great storage reservoir some
 where on the White Nile south of l Khartum these waste waters of the
 | White Nile could be 'impounded while 1 the Blue Nile filled the channel below
 Khartum, and then used later in the
 i winter to reinforce the falling Nile and
 l maintain the supply in Assuan. Furth CT
 i tbe possibility of holding back the I Ia ha rf oc.t
 possible advantage in case of high
 1 floods, as by reducing the pressure at
 l the top of the flood the danger in in-
 undation in Egypt would be greatly 1 diminished.
 | The scheme was rapidly pushed for
 l ward through the preliminary stages
 and loan of $15.OoO, 900 was guaran- | teed by the British government, which enabled work to be started before the war came. Now, however, it is in | abeyance until peace comes.
 What has been the result of this de- velopment of Egypt's irrigation sys- | tenn, on which the wealth of Egypt de- | pends?
 The financial outlook of Egypt has become as rosy as it was formely black. The government, now solvent, was able to dictate terms to it's credi- tors and in 1S90-93 conversions of the various debts to lower rates of inter- est were carried through easily. Final ly in 1904. it was felt that the position of the government was now so secure that the old system of international control was no longer necessary. After the Anglo-French agreement of that year. the functions of the Caisse de la Dette were reduced to those of merely formal trustees for debenture holders, and Egypt was left free to supply her increasing surplus to the devolpment of her resources.
 DEBT WIPED OUT
 British guidance had brought about q result which no one who knew Egypt in the old days could have believed possi- ble. Modern Egypt indeed has cause to be grateful to the British, who have fought their way steadily on through all opposition toward the regeneration of Egypt If the accumulation of the coun- ] try's crippling debt by Ismail Pasha was unique, no less unique was the way in which the British dragged the country l back from state of bankructpy to such 1 a pitch of prosperity that even $450, GOO. .0OO of debt seems almost an unconsidered trifle.
 1 What is the future that awaits Egypt? There are, for one thing, all sorts of 1 industries still waiting to be developed. For example, there is the making of wine. Historians state that wine was ! made in the Nile valley before it was
 l made anywhere else. Strict Mohamme-
 dans are unable to participate in this industry, but Copts and foreigners are
 sufficiently numerous to revive it.
 Then there are the gold mines in the
 eastern desert which were once worked with energy, but have never been prop | erly tackled in modern times. There is
 little doubt that these Egyptian mines
 i are the famous Ophir of King Solomon's