The Soudan

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 88, 30 March 1926, Page 5

The Soudan

Anglo-Egyptian Relations DUTY OF BRITISH RULE. AN ILLUMINATING ADDRESS. Mr D. N. Mac Diarmid. 8.A., Soudan 1 missionary, the guest of the day at the Hastings Rotary luncheon yesterday, delivered an address on the position of affairs in the Soudan before a large attendance ot Rotarians, presided over by Rotarian E. J. AV. Hallett, actingpresident. •Mr. Mac Diarmid said he was not going to deal with the whole of the Soudan, which was a vast territory stretching across the Sahara, as large as Europe, forming too great a subject for a brief address; he would merely speak of the country between Egypt and Uganda, watered by the Nile. The word Soudan meant black, and in the Anglo-Egyptian Soudan of 15 provinces, some as large as Franco, a great question had arisen as to who was to govern. The King of Egypt claimed to be the King of Soudan, a claim which England opposed, through the military’ lenders, including Gordo? and Kitchener, with the armies that England sent out and that reconquered Soudan. This conquest gave England the right to control. On the otbe v hand, the Egyptian Government said that Gordon and Kitchener held their commissions from the Egyptian Government and they were only lent to Egypt, which also paid for the armies sent out. Britain agreed that Egypt supplied money and contributed troops whilst Britain supplied the brains and men. so a joint rule was arranged and. at every post, the flag of Egypt floated side by side with the Union Jack. EGYPTIAN DISLOYALTY. Affairs went all right for some time and then the Egyptian Government did ra most degrading thing. They used the Egyptian troops in Southern Soudan to stir up trouble amongst these primitive peoples to disturb their minds and to cause them to rebel, instead of preserving order. AH this culminated in the murder of Sir Lee Stack. GovernorGeneral of the Soudan, than whom n finer man never was sent out. The result of this was that Britain, the senior partner, told Egypt to get out. Every Egyptian officer and soldier all civil servants, together with such other Egyptians as desired to go. were sent away and now the country is practically under British rule. Still the anomaly of the two flags side by side remains. NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL. A new Governor-General, Sir Geoffrey Archer, appointed, a massive man 6ft. 4ms. in height, looking huge in his white, heavily gold braided uniform, with plumed helmet, and the right figure to inspire respect. Surrounded by his bodyguard of men from . 6 to 6ft. 2ins. high, his cavalcade made a very imposing spectacle. The new appointment was confirmed and then countersigned by the King of Egypt. He was the first Governor-General appointed without first going through Egypt. Thus though the Egyptians were driven out. the two flags remained, and the King of Egypt retained the right to countersign appointments. SOUDANESE ATTITUDE. It would be asked what do the Soudanese think of the position. Well, * before answering the question, it must be explained that the Anglo-Egyptian Soudan is divided into two pans, the upper and the lower. The upper part is composed of a brown-cotoured people, Moslem in religion and Arabic m speech, while the lower, extending to the tenth parallel of latitude, is inhabited by a black, Hametic race, broken up into tribes speaking various languages and dialects. The north is overwhelmingly in favour of British control and he (the speaker, had opportunity of assessing the value of these opinions. He knew that the educated men who had grown up to manhood from the colleges were strongly in favour of British government. Sir Said Ah Meraghni. K.C.M.G., a direct descendant from Mahomet, and an influential personage in the religious sphere there, as well as being a capable and a cultured man. was on the side of Britain. THE COMMON PEOPLE. Regarding the feelings of the common people, he instanced Port Soudan, a rising port in the Red Sea, where order was maintained by the Soudanese police and the Egyptian soldiers. At this port, when it was learned that the Governor-General had been murdered, th© Soudanese police were so incensed that their arms had to be taken away and they had to be locked up in barracks or thev would have murdered soldiery. Hie Soudanese catchword “The Mahdi was right, after all. sounded rebellious, but it was no such thing, because the Mahdi was lor ousting the Egyptians, who had been, afterwards, established ny the English and who had proved to be so false. IN SOUTHERN SOUDAN. The southern Soudanese were in no position to express political opinions. They had no opinions to express, a© they were the most ignorant people in th© world and, for their sake alone, it was Britain’s bounden duty to stay n the Soudan to voice the feelings oi these people who could not voice then own. Personally he did not think that Egypt was able to govern herself anu certainly she was not able to govern these primitive people, so that it was Britain’s duty to remain in control. His heart was with these rude people, the most primitive people imaginable, further back in civilisation than the painted savages that roamed Britain, who, at least, wore skins, whereas these southern Soudanese had no idea of clothes. They had never heard ol Europe. England. New Zealand (laughter) or even of Egypt, and they never heard of the late Great War. They did not know white men. whom they called “Red Arabs.” They were cut off from the world by their languages, of which there were some 400 in th< Soudan, beside different dialects, and if a man of one district went to another he would find himself not only in a country with a different language, which he did not understand, but he found himself in an enemy country, where he was in danger of being tortured to death. That was why the country was so backward—away back before the Stone-age. NATURAL WEALTH. Ono great, problem was the great A wealth of the country. It was not the desert imagined but a great grass country and the day was not far off when the Soudan, which was being extensively irrigated, would supply the greater part of the cotton used in the Empire, which meant that trade must go into the country. Missionaries were said to disturb the native races, but they did not disturb them anything like the introduction of trade. They could not put a belt round a country and trade must come to be of mutual benefit to the traders and the natives. But trade broke down the tribal customs of th© natives, who n r ent. in one step, from paganism to civilisation find it would be better if civilisation (Continued on next column).