Opening up the Soudan

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXI, Issue 5520, 12 November 1901, Page 4

Opening up the Soudan

Replying to the toast of 'The Imperial forces/ at -the luncheon given to Mr Andrew Oaraegie and Lord Balfour of Burleigh in tbe Muni ipal Buildings, (Jtasgow, on September 10th, the Sirdar (Hir Fr»noie Reginald Wingatp) referred to tbe work of opening up th** Soudan. He w^h- dto say 'hnt in the reincarnated 8-urfan b^rewis nmplp tcep" for i*n*erpnsp of all sorfs under thedut.l lags of Great Britain and Egypt, with publid security aesuml by Ihe pretence of BJtyp'iac and Bondan. em troops, who had shown tl eir gallantry and trustworthiness, on several UCOieions. Ho had no hesitation in gi.yingj that judicious pion< aring of some of tho principal coaimeroial houses in Glasgow" would result in benefit to thpmaelvpg as well as to the country. „Not, a f«w. w^re alive to Ihw"fact, m had betn proved by the appearance of s. paragraph stating that be had com© to Glasgow in order te purchase large stocks of rail winy and bridging material. He ne^d h^dlv iay tiia< thin wsn not » fact, \m* hp oai -h s*y -hat the Kgyp'i»»n (J.-v-rn-m-nthad rpc-*ntfy liberally _r t t d« oonsidt-rabln sum ot monpy in order »v Improve railway communioa'ionH in the Soudan, »nd he had not thea'iphl'©il;. donbt if Glasgow houses wnnld tpn-d-t *b*»y -h«>o'd have ©"Pry profippcl- r>f doing some business. It w»s e«««^nrinl that there should be an outlet for Sondan trade towards the Bed The Bile Valley must be connected with Suakim or some other port. Fifteen years of Dervish misrule and destruction had '-aused the sorvtvors td be deficient ot almost all the necessaries of Ufa, and inre'-y there was ample scope lor enterprise in that direction, but he thought it only fair to mention that oil of the teeming populations of the Soudan it was calculated that 75 per cent of the inhabitants bad disnppeared through war, famine, and disease. Of course^ we were only at the very beginning of our great work. The raagnitude of the country was scarcely realised by people here, and its resources Were almost unknown, but during the many journeys he bad made since the Soudan had been re-conquered he had ieen ampin |u»ti@cation for hoping that there was considerable scope for commercial enterprise of all sorts. Regarding the Gordon College at Khartoum, they would be interested to hear that it was making good progress towards completion, and they calculated it mighj; be completed in about a year. Elementary schools had been started in several towns in the Soudan, and it was hoped that several lads would be eligible to enter on a course of technical education by the time the College was completed, a year hence. As to climate,his experience was that it was cot .early io bad as it had been painted.