Evening star., 1924-08-13
ANGL0-EGYPT|AN
SUDANAS PROBLEM
Wide Territory in Contro-
versy, With Value to Both
Contestants, Discussed.

The Anglo Egyptian Sudan. control
OF which has recently been the sub
ject of heated discussion between
certain Britons and Egyptians. is as
important to Egypt. say the Egyp-
tians. as the stem to a flower. AS in
the case of all else Egyptian, the
value Of the Sudan hangs on the Nile
and it's life-giving waters. Great
Britain sees in the country, however,
a great source of raw materials for
her cotton mills.
The country is the subject of the
following bulletin from the Wash
ington headquarters of the National
Geographic Society:
Held Confirmation of Egypt.
considered only from a geographic
cal point of view, the Anglo Egyptian
Sudan is a Southern continuation Of
Egypt" says the bulletin: but polit-
ically and ethnically Egypt has been
unable to follow up very successfully
the suggestions of geography The
ancient empire of the Pharaohs had
some control over the northern parts
of what is now the Sudan, but mod
ern Egypt had no claim to any part
of the region until 1920 when an
Egyptian army invaded the country
to the south and conquered it. A
government largely OF Turks, Alba
the people were systematically op-'
pressed. Slave raiding became the
big business, and thousands of luck
less blacks from the remote parts of
the country were carried into cap
tivity every year
"In the late sixties the Egyptians
obtained the services of Europeans.
chiefly Britons. as governors and Off
cials in the Sudan, and some effort
of 10 n
served as governor for many years.
Loss Traced to FanatfcaI Uprising.
But the fanatical Mahdi movement
arose in the Sudan in 1881, by 1885
Khartum had fallen and Gordan was
murdered, and soon all semblance of
Egyptian control over the country
had again passed away. From that
time until 1898 local Mohammedan
despots held sway in the Sudan and
even attempted the conquest Of
Egypt, though unsuccessfully.
"The reconQuest of the Sudan took
place between 1896 and 1898 by joint
British and Egyptian forces led by
'Kitchner of Khartum. 1t is on this
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
intermarried with them, and now the
population is a marvellous mixture
a negro potpourri-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.
Embraces Huge Territory.
The Sudan is by rights the name
of the entire region just south of the
Sahara, extending across Africa from
the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. The
region along the upper Nile and ex-
tending in a broad band eastward to
the Red Sea is properly the Anglo
Egyptian Sudan But even this re-
Stricted portion of the Sudan is
huge country. One travels 600 miles
by rail south from the southern Egyp-
tian border before he reaches Khar-
tun. From there south one may travel
another thousand miles on a fiat bot
toned 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
the Sudan is very rich; and. most i'm
portant, it has first chance at the
water that comes down the long
channel OF the White Nile from Afri-
cas- Great Lakes, and down the Blue
Nile from the Abyssinian highlands
More and more cotton is being grown
in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and the
country may one day prove a rival to
the land of Dixie