New Britain herald., 1924-08-29
THE SUDAN RIVALS
 DIXIE OF THE U. s.
Value Of District Lies in the
 River Nile

Wbshlnglon, p I', Aug -F.-ln' Anglo -Egyptian Sudan, control O. which has recently been the subiec Of heated discussion between certain Britons and Egyptians, is as inpor' tant 10 Egypt, say the Egyptians, a' the stem 10 il flower As In the cast Of all else Egyptian, the value Of the Sudan hangs on the Nile and its
 lifc-giying waters. Great Britain secs in the country however, great source of raw materials for her cot ton mills.
 The country is the subject of the following bulletin from the Washing ton. D. C.. headquarters of the Na- tional Geographic society:
 Long a Source of Slaves.
 Considered only from geo. graphical point of view, the Anglo Egyptian Sudan is southern con- tinuation of Egypt" says the bulle- tin: but politically and ethnically Egypt has been unable to follow up very successfully the suggestions of geography. The ancient empire of i the Pharaohs had some control over the northern parts of what Is now the Sudan; but modern Egypt had no claims to any part of the region until 1920 when an Egyptian army | invaded the country to the south and conquered it. A government large ly of Turks, Albanians and Circas- sians' was set up and the people were systematically oppressed. Slave raiding became the big business, and thousands of lucklcss blacks from the remote parts of the country were carried into captivity every year.
 Tn the late sixties the Egyptians obtained the services of Europeans chiefly Britons. as governors and officials in the Sudan. and some ef- fort was made at reforms. Colonel Gordan served as governor for many years.
 Slipped Out of Egypts Hands.
 But the fannatical Mahdi move- ment arose in the Sudan in 1881: by 1885 Khartum had fallen and Cor dan was murdered; and soon all semblance of Egyptian control over
  From that time until 1898 local Mohammedan dcspots held sway in the Sudan and even attempted the conquest of Egypt, though unsuc- cessfully.
 "The reconquest of the Sudan took | place between 1896 and 1898 by joint | British and Egyptian forces led by Kitchener of Khartoum.' It is on this participation in the conquest; | the treaty with Egypt following it | that Great Britain bases her claims | on the Sudan.
 "The Sudanese are not Egyptians. | They were Nubians and other blacks to begin with. Arabs came in and with them, and now the population is a marvellous mix ture,--a negro potpurri'-many of whom speak Arabic and most of whom are Moslems. Nor do the Sudanese like the Egyptians. About their only tie in common is that both live on and by the waters of the Nile.
 "'The Sudan is by rights the name of the entire region just south of the Sahara extending across Afri- ca from the Atlantic to the Indian ocean. The region along the upper Nile and extending in a broad band eastward to the Red sea, is properly Ii the glo-Egyptian Sudan But even this restricted portion of the Sudan is a huge country. One trav- els 600 miles by rail south from the southern Egyptian border before he sudanese like the Egyptians. About south one may travel another thou- sand miles on a flat-bottomed river steamer to the southern boundary of the Sudan--and that point is about one-third the way to the Cape of Good Hope. "The entire valley of the Nile in he Sudan is very rich; and, most important, it has first chance at the water that comes down the long channel of the White Nile from he Abyssinian highlands. More and nore cotton is being grown in the ,nglo- Egyptian Sudan, and the country may one day prove a rival o the Land of Dixie"