THE BLUE NILE DAM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20282, 15 December 1927, Page 12

THE BLUE NILE DAM

GRANTING A CONCESSION. FEAR OF COMPLICATIONS. (Pr«e» AP3ociation —By Telegraph- -Copyright ) CAIRO, December 13. The fear of grave political complications is one of the arguments with which Dr Wargeneh Martin, whose negotiations with the American firm of White on behalf of the Abyssinian Government to construct the Tansa dam was discussed in the House | of Commons, is now supporting his Government’s apparent disinclination to grant Britain a concession. According,to an interview, Dr Martin argued that Britain, after spending large sums on the project, would undoubtedly seek control of the territory communicating with the Sudan in order to regulate the waters of the Blue Nile for irrigation purposes. Tins will mean a virtual concession of the territory to Britain. Thus America, without tern, torial designs on the country, is best fitted to undertake the work. Furthermore, the possible result of the Anglo-Itahan Treaty of 1925 might be that Britain, if she secured the concession, woul dpress Abyssinia to grant Italy a transabyssiman railway concession.—A. and N.Z. and Sydney Sun Gallic.