OUR POLICY ON THE UPPER NILE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—In your article in the Spectator of September 10th on "Our Policy on the Upper Nile" you refer to the diffi- culty of keeping an open channel through the "suds," or great weed-dams between Khartoum and the Albert Nyanza. Is not the subject a more far-reaching one, affecting the well- being of the whole cotton-crop in Lower Egypt? Wilcocks, in his book on "Irrigation in Egypt," says that these "suds" form huge natural reservoirs on the White Nile, and so give a constant summer supply of water to the Delta, and that the result of Baker forcing a channel through them for his steamers was a subsequent failure of the summer supply in Lower Egypt until the suds reformed. If, therefore, a per- manent channel is kept open for navigation on the White Nile artificial reservoirs on an immense scale would probably have to be built.—I am, Sir, &c., Elm Grove, Maidenhead, September 12th. A. M. FAGAN.
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