CONTROL OF BLUE NILE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22349, 21 February 1936, Page 10

CONTROL OF BLUE NILE

Capital is being made in Rome by the publication of what was intended to be a secret report of a British committee upon the question of control of the head waters of the Blue Nile, which supplies a large portion of the water for the irrigation of Egypt and the whole of that thus used for the Sudan. The report was one of fact by British officials and there is nothing to "suggest that it has had any bearing upon British policy in connection with the war between Italy and Abyssinia. In fact, where the detailed findings are not on the side of complete impartiality, they incline against the attitude Britain has adopted, and for which she has been so often and so acrimoniously attacked in Italy. The position in regard to Lake Tsana, briefly, is that a treaty was concluded in 1902 between Britain and Abyssinia by which Abyssinia undertook not to permit the construction of any works affecting the flow of the Blue Nile except in agreement with the Governments of the Sudan and Britain. In 1926 Italy officially recognised the exclusive right of Britain to deal with the waters of Lake Tsana. The following year Abyssinia entered into some arrangement with the White Engineering Corporation of the United States for building a dam at the outflow of Lake Tsana and thi's company has been internationally recognised in the matter. The treaty however stands, and while the White Engineering Corporation may some day construct the dam, which has no immediate purpose in Abyssinian territory, the tremendous economic interests of Egypt and the Sudan in the control of the water make future British policy 'quite clear. Last May Britain declined to attend a proposed conference in connection with the dam-building concession on the ground that it might aggravate the Italian-Abyssinian controversy. Whatever the outcome of the war Italy's word has been pledged.