THE FUTURE OF THE SOUDAN.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1827, 18 April 1885, Page 2

THE FUTURE OF THE SOUDAN.

(SPECTATOE.)

The papers are already beginning to discuss the fate of the Soudan ; but that must depend entirely upon that o£ Egypt. If we were about to reign at Cairo, it might be worth while to hold Khartoum as a great outpost and dep6t of trade accessible by the Nile ; but if we are to abandon Egypt in two years — and this is the theory of the Government — to retain such a place would be madness. Unless we built a railway from Suakim, and permanently garrisoned a line of forts along it for protection, against Arab attacks, Khartoum would be in the air, and liable to constant siege ; and for what should we, undertake such an expensive and sterile task ? We can resist, or help Egypt to resist the Mahdi much better at Wady Halfa ; and the Soudan itself would be to us, overtasked as we already are, a most burdensome possession. "What do we, who own a fifth of the world, want with more deserts, more dark men, and more responsibilities for keeping order ? "We might, as a trading station, just as well hold Timbuctoo or the Wahabee capital. As to the anarchy which is to fall on the Soudan, the Mudir of Dongola, as Sultan, of ELhartoum, can prevent that ; and if he cannot, let the Soudanese do it for themselves. "What is their anarchy to us ? That notion of our duty to protect two or three hundred thousand of the bravest men in the world, who break into British squares, and keep up a siege for 12 months without failure of organisation, or commissariat, who obey one Federal loader, and who oan move through their own deserts at will, is absurd quixotry, We have enough to do without taking charge of men who, i£ they were properly armed, would pro* bably defeat us, and who can certainly defend their country againßt any other Power. The Times thinks there will be a "scramble for the Soudan," and that the French will get it. Let the French try. They will not advance from Egypt, for we shall neutralise the Delta if we depart ; and if they like wasting their sickly conscripts on conquering halfcaste Arabs in a waterless desert, that is thefc affair, or rather the affair of Frenclm peasants, who will have to furnisi^ another army equal to that now being wasted in Tonquin. There are no "mines" in the Soudan, nor has Khartoum a debt in which the Jews can job ; and we may depend upon it M. Ferry has gained experience by this time, both in Colonies and semi-tro-pical empires. As to the Italians, i£ they wish to have Massowah, let them, have Massowah, and Abyssinia at the back of it, if they can get it. King John is quite competent to take care of himself, and will do it with a will. We cannot do all the work to be done in Africa ourselves, and could not have better aids in keeping the Red Sea littoral quiet than Italians. "We dissent wholly from the Grovermnent policy a 8 to the Delta of the Nile, and doubt if it can ever be carried out ; but as to the Soudan, the Cabinet is right, and the sooner we forget the detestable land the better. We shall have wasted some 10 millions there already before we are out of it, and hundreds of valuable lives, in order to protect garrisons belonging to another Power, who ought either to have protected themselves or to have submitted to their enemy.

Andrew Carnegi, a Scotch Millionaire, of Pittsburg, ws3 unmercifully blackballed at the London Reform Club,

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