THE SUDAN UNITED MISSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15301, 15 November 1911, Page 4

THE SUDAN UNITED MISSION.

bia, —Wnii tuo he v. Hiuxanuur u,n, I regret tuo lottur wwch appeared a lew clttj» ago bignod •'Woxid-wiue." 1 huvo no uyuijuiiiy witn the tons ol ttiat lotter, and i do not think tnat tlio tjnuan Minion is likely to bo niucli lieipttl by tlio co-opera-tion ol tho writer, it jiui contributions aio Kivcn in tno same spirit in wtiicn tno icttor is written. It id h |x>or way to neip any uauso by unjustly criticising others: who . tiro wonting tor mo t>amo und. Mr Von tays that he thinks it is a "gravei; matter, troni tuo Christian standpoint that 600 millions of tno puoploa of tno i£«at should., beconio atheists than that 60 niilliotii ottUonegroes of Africa snouftf become Mosloind"; possibly to, but why inako comjiitrifoiw at all,' \Vhy siiould not ovary Cnmtian try to aid both movement*—that (or Christianising tho pcopie of tlio Sudan" and also Uio w which are working' amount tno peoples of China and other . parts of tlio East T Surclv wo can pray lor uoth, and, surely, also, wo oan give t little" to both. I would not, nowyvcr, hava ' written this letter but to put Mr Don' right on ono feubjectrr-that of tho population of tho Sudan. Mr Don saya:. "i am in doubt about tho population of the proposed Hold of tho hS.U.M. • ' \V.' says ho . Knows that there are 40 millions of people living in the district. How doee ho know ?" Tho reason why 1 said tiiat there were 40 liiilion i>eo))lo living in tho Sudan was that this is tho population given in tho ofliqjjd, publications ot tlio Sudan United Mission,' and 1 naturally concluded'that a mission' which had on its boards so many keon, shrowd, business mon in tho largo centres of Great Britain and elsewhere, would hardly commit itself to a statement of So' much importance without having Out boeir convinced «" its reliability j I (elt alio that iJr Kumm was, ol all men, tlio least likely to make a rnistakb in regard to a question of this sort. I now find, as tho result of a littio inquiry, that tho population as given by tlio Sudan Unitcd Mission and l)r Kumm, is that generally accepted by , ccientific authorities. Tho . Encyclopedia Dritannica, olovontli edition (published this year), states, in tho article entitled "Sudan," that this country embraces "a total area of ovor 2,G00,000 square mike, and a population approximately of 40 mil- • lions." In Stanford's Compendium of Geography, 12 volumes, edited by tiie celebrated ethnologist Dr A. H. Koane, F.R.G.S., and published in 1907, I God in volumo 1 tho following; "Tho Sudan hasan extrumo length cast and west of Dome* , what over 3500 miles, with a mean breadth of 600 miles, a total urea of at least two ■ million square miles, and a - population - approximately estimated at about 80'mil-. ; lions." Lieut.-oolonol A. F. MocklorKortytnati, F.R.U.8., writing of Northern Nigoria, a portion of tho south-western

Sudan, which comprisos an area of eoroo 500,000 equaro miles, gives tho population approximately at 20 millions. From too foregoing it bo ioen that tho popul*, Uon ■ o{ 40 millions is really a very eon* Derrativo estimate, and umy. be relioa upon (or nil practical purposes. Mr Don haa boon too long associated with mission work amongst a ioroign raco to b» other than symjxitliotio towards every phase of foreign missions, and I foci etiro that the present < ufgoncy of tlia conditions which obtain in the Sudan will lend-him to join thoso who in this city purpose endeavouring to do a stem tho Inrcada of the faleo prophot amongst tho pagan tribes by quioklv pressing in and occupying the' land' for Christ.—l am, etc., W.'