OPENING UP THE SOUDAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5993, 30 July 1887, Page 6

OPENING UP THE SOUDAN.

A correspondent, writing to the Times, says there can be little doubt that the result of Mr Stanley's expedition will be to open up the general question of the government and trade of Soudan. Eecently a private mission to Suakim was undertaken by Mr Francis W. Fox, who went out at his own expense for the purpose of collecting on the spot information which would be of service to him in devising a scheme for the restoration of peace and prosperity to the Soudan. Mr Fox has just returned, and he has put the information he has obtained into the form of a report, which, the correspondent understands, will be submitted to the Foreign Office. In this report he enters at length into details concerning a Company which he proposes should be formed, somewhat on the principle of the Borneo Company, but without any monopoly whatever, leaving the trade open to all comers with honest intentions. He does not wish our Government to commit itself in any way, nor does he anticipate any difficulties in the case of either Turkey or Egypt. At the same time it will be maintained by all capitalists that it would be extremely unsafe for them to commit themselves to any risk, unless the English Government gave them some sort of assurance of protection in case of necessity. There is reason to believe that some of the leading sheikhs in the immediate interior have expressed readiness to sign any reasonable agreement as to trade with repntable Englishmen. Mr Fox has come to the conclusion that the best method of opening up the Soudan would probably be to organise small district Committees of sheikhs, who shall be advised and gxiided by Englishmen residing in each district. Further, that some twenty or twenty-five Englishmen be appointed in the first instance by the proposed Soudan Company as their agents at thie stations or factories at the tribal ports on the Bed Sea coast, and at the several commercial centres in the Soudan, and that three Inspectors-General should also be appointed, whoso duty it would be to visit and confer with the resident agents, to enquire on the spot into any cases of oppression and injustice, and generally to see that liberty and order are maintained, and justice is administered throughout the Provinces of the Soudan. Mr Fox also suggests that tae proposed Soudan Company should refrain from entering into any commercial or trading operations direct with the small retail traders, but only, as a rule, buy and sell through the leading native, English, Greek, and other local merchants, as in this way the trading operations of the Company will be greatly simplified, and the risk of losses reduced to a minimum. The export and import trade o£ the Soudan before the late rebellion is computed to have exceeded two-and-a-half million pounds sterling (,£2,500,000) per annum, of which amount about one-half, or ifi.1,250,000, represented the value of the exports, and .£1,250,000 thatof the imports. There is every reason, Mr Fox believes, for supposing that when peace and order are restored, and an improved government is established in the Soudan a great development in the export and import trade will take place, and that it will assume much larger proportions than before the rebellion. A line of railway connecting the Nile basin with a port on tho Red Sea is, in Mr Fox's opinion, a most important factor to be taken into consideration, and its construction should be commenced at an early period, as it will tend more than any othei measure to ameliorate the condition of the people of the Soudan and Equatorial Africa. The cost of constructing this railway Mr Fox sets down at £980,000. From the land tribute, customs, monopolies, &c, Mr Fox estimates the annual available revenue of the Company at JE490,500, and the expenditure on administration at .£220,500, leaving a balance of .£275,000 for Directors' fees and general management and profit, on a proposed working capital of These are the leading points in the remarkable scheme proposed by Mr Fox for the rescue of the Soudan from anarchy and barrenness. If practical men find it practicable, then Mr Fox ought, says the Times correspondent, to be reckoned among the great benefactors of Africa.