KHARTOUM TO-DAY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 95, 28 April 1910, Page 6

KHARTOUM TO-DAY.

♦ It is not surprising that Mr Roosevelt is impressed with Khartoum. A writer says of the old Khartoum that it was "levelled with the dust by the Mahdi as a haunt, defiled, fit only for the*" jackal and the hyaena." But the new Khartoum is a "handsome, modern city, with broad streets, imposing public buildings, and plateglass fronted shops, lit by electric light, and traversed by electric trams." The new city is planned in tho shape of a double Union Jack. The- idea was Lord Kitchener's, and the reason he gave for it, as he chalked it out one day in the ruins of Gordon's palace, was that guns placed in the centres of the converging streets would suppress internal disorder. But no doubt behind this practical reason was a feeling that it was appropriate to stamp indelibly on the Soudan the flag for which Gordon died. It is said that the city now presents few relics of, the tragedy of twenty-five years ago. The ruins of Gordon's palace have been cleared away and in their place stands a stately building—probably the Gov-

ernor's palace, where Mr Roosevelt is a guest. A statue of Gordon looks from the Khedival avenue out across the desert. To-day his memory has still a magic in the Soudan. It is related of a native woman who had been laundress to Gordon, that when she first saw the statue she was overjoyed, but could not understand why it did not move. "Yes, it is he," she said, "but why does he sit so still? He always laughed and nodded to me before." From morning till late in the afternoon she sat on the ground and gazed at the statue, heedless of the laughter of passers-by. Towards evening she got up suddenly and went home happy; Gordon had smiled at her. There is one reproach to the English; the Anglican Cathedral stands unfinished near a magnificent mosque and several Christian churches. A few thousand pounds are still wanted for this work, and it is to be hoped they will not be wanted much longer.