THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1927. DAMMING THE BLUE NILE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20252, 10 November 1927, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1927. DAMMING THE BLUE NILE.

It is to be trusted that the visit to London of the Egyptian irime Minister and his conversations with the British Foreign Secretary will lead to the establishment of improved relations between the British and the Egyptian Governments. It is a reasonable assumption that the prospects of a satisfactory settlement of hitherto existing differences have been enhanced by the death of Zaghlul Pasha, whose nationalism was of an uncompromisingly antiBritish character. Sirwat Pasha will show himself capable of serving his country with vision if the upshot of his mission should be the placing of relations between Great Britain and Egypt on a firm and assured basis of friendship. For the material well-being of the people of Egypt the British Government has performed great things, not least of all in its vast undertakings for the conservation of the waters of the Nile for irrigation purposes. This is a matter vital to the prosperity of Egypt, and explains, of course, the interest that was excited in both London and Cairo by the report last week that an American corporation had received from the Abyssinian Government a concession for the construction of a dam on the Blue Nile at Lake I'sana. The report was discredited in well-informed circles in London since such an undertaking is precluded, except with the consent of the British Government, by a treaty between Great Britain and Abyssinia. Indeed, the agreement which the J. G. White Engineering Corporation with, it is said, the full support of the United States Government, claimed to have entered into with the Abyssinian Government for the construction of a dam seems to relate to an undertaking that was contemplated by the British Government itself. Thus The Times observed in a recent article: —“ A matter of common interest to Great Britain and Abyssinia is now under consideration at Addis Ababa. The British Government has long projected the construction of a barrage across the outlet of Lake Tsana, in Abyssinia, at its southernmost point, where the Blue Nile leaves the lake on its long journey across the sands df the Sudan. The lake itself being in Abyssinia, it is, of course, far from the mind of the British Government to undertake the work without the full consent of the Ethiopian authorities. Certain formal proposals were made at Addis Ababa some months ago, and negotiations are still proceeding. Counter-suggestions have been made by the Abyssinian Government and these have entailed a reply. . . . The Regent is genuinely concerned to safeguard the rights of his countrymen and to preserve in full the sovereignty of his State. The British plan will be found to jeopardise neither rights nor independence. The main purpose* of the project is simply to utilise, instead of allowing to run to waste, the flood waters of Lake Tsana.” If that was the position only so recently as August last the appearance of an American engineering corporation with a claim to a concession from the Abyssinian Government relating to the same project is somewhat mystifying. Even the statement, which is now made, that no agreement was signed and that it was clearly understood that the assent of the British Government to the construction of the dam would have to be secured leaves the position somewhat obscure. The waters of the Blue Nile have long been regarded as ear-marked for the Sudan, as those of the White Nile are for Egypt.