The Press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1951. The Sudan

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26560, 24 October 1951, Page 6

The Press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1951. The Sudan

j The appeal by Sudan nationalists ■ to the United Nations for an international authority to control the territory until its future has been decided directs attention to the third side of the Sudan triangle—the people themselves. In the last three years they have moved rapidly along the road to self-government, I and in • January the Legislative Assembly demanded independence I by the end of this year. Perhaps the progress, under British tutelage, has been too rapid, though most observers agree that the Sudanese are at least as capable of self-government as the people of Libya and Eritrea. The progress has probably been i hastened by the disagreement between the present governing powers, Britain and Egypt, which hold joint authority under their Condominium Agreement, made in 1899, after Britain had helped Egypt reconquer the Sudan from the Mahdi. Actually, the Condominium has been a somewhat one-sided arrangement, with Britain, the senior partner in the Sudan campaign, exercising effective control This has been particularly the case since the mutiny of 1924 and the murder of the governor, Sir Lee Stack. Though these events were ample justification for clearing seditious Egyptian officials from the Government service at that time, they did not altogether justify the continued exclusion of Egyptians, a policy that might wejl have been

revised when the 1936 treaty was negotiated. The Egyptians were not then in a position to press such questions, because of anxiety about the African intentions of Mussolini Since then there has been an inevitable divergence in British and Egyptian thinking about the Sudan.

The British, looking to the ultimate end of the Condominium, have been concerned to protect the welfare of the Sudanese at that time, and also to try to retain their friendship, as they have of the Jordan Arabs. The Egyptians’ interest on the other hand was not much in the Sudanese or their land, but in the Nile. As Mr Churchill wrote 50 years ago, “ The Sudan is joined to Egypt “by the Nile as a diver is connected with the surface by his air- “ pipe; without it there is only suffo- “ cation; aut Nilus aut nihil". Sudanese nationalist aspirations found their first encouragement in Egypt. In 1942 the political movement known as the Graduates’ Congress (formed four years earlier) demanded the progressive grant of self - government. When Britain refused, one section of the Congress decided to make common cause with Egypt, “ a fellow victim of British imperial“ism”. This perhaps had something to do with the support shortly afterwards given by Britain to constitutional reform, which by 1M» had provided an elective legislative assembly, consisting almost entirely of Sudanese, who were given half the portfolios in the executive council. These gains undoubtedly turned much nationalist support from the pro-Egyptian faction to the pro-Brittah independence movement led by Sir Abdel Rahman el Mahdi, the son of the Mahdi. This movement is the party in office under the present constitution and the party seeking recognition of the United Nations. The pro-figyptian nationalists have boycotted the Legislative Assembly, believing that they can best achieve their end by getting rid of the British with Egyptian help and then getting rid Of the Egyptians themselves. In the long rur both sections want the same thing independence and post-war history suggests that they will get it How then can Egypt’s vital and legitimate interest in the Nile be protected? Certainly not by quarrelling with Britain, for even Egyptian control of the Sudan would not give full control of the Nile, in which no fewer than seven other countries are concerned— the Belgian Congo, Uganda, Tanganyika, Ruana Urundi andEritre a. Of first importance is the damming of the White Nile at Owen Falls, which will convert Lake Victoria (in Uganda) into the greatest reservoir in the world. Egypt’s real interest is in international cooperation throughout the Nile basin. This is a leas spectacular policy to pursue than untrammelled sovereignty in the Sudan; it will not wiq easy political popularity for the Egyptian Government; but it*is essential to the well-being Of Egypt.