THE TRANQUIL SUDAN
By MICHAEL LANGLEY Khartoum.
Across the Blue Nile from the palace lie three huge piles of millet, 5o,000 tons of the country's staple foodstuff, stacked by the Govern- ment as a reserve to draw on should the price of grain go up on the open market. The Sudan is the cheapest country in the Middle East today, its cost of living about 75 per cent. above pre-war level. Cairo may have everything in abundance, but prices are high. Here bread and rice cost 5d., beef 8d., mutton is. and fish 612-d., per lb. A chicken is to be had for 2S. ; a packet of English cigarettes for Is. 5d. Complaints are occasionally raised in the local Press that sugar, a Government monopoly, tea, spirits and cloth are still rationed. An immediate post-war campaign urged the decontrol of prices and distribution,- but public opinion has now concentrated on maintaining controls and on taking advantage of the Price Stabilisa- tion Fund to offset the rising price of imports bought on the world market.
There is no income-tax in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, yet the Budget has balanced, and, in all but three years, has shown a surplus, ever since 1912. This year's estimate is slightly over 49,000,000. Foreign trade—E2I,000,000—is divided equally between imports and exports. Most hospital treatment is free, infant mortality is down to 78, and the incidence of disease is one-tenth of what it was in 19oo. In 1900 there were 300 boys going to school in the Sudan. At the beginning of this year there 'were 1,146 schools with 9o,000 pupils, two-thirds of whom are being educated, secondary school- boys as boarders, free of charge by the Government.
There are two sides to the picture, and on the other is a pastoral, if rather arid, scene in which two-thirds of the population lead a peaceful, tribal existence, cultivating the soil and herding flocks without contact with the authorities except in the event of a breach of law and order too serious for their native or tribal courts to handle. The charge, made in some quarters of Egypt, that the welfare and development of the Sudan are being neglected is a hollow one. It is as empty as the site of those gargantuan and unguarded pyramids of millet would be if there was real cause for social discontent or restiveness among the people. It is as irresponsible in making play with the myth of oil and gold as Mussolini was with similar stories once told of Abyssinia-.
The wonder is that, having gone so far along the road towards self- government, one section of the Sudanese should now subscribe to a policy which might compromise their independence. There are 115 Sudanese now holding Division I appointments in Government service. In Division II and HI they fill 4,400 and 1,997 posts respec- tively. In fact, 83 per cent. of all classified posts are today in the hands of Sudanese. Some are judges ; some district commissioners. Many are doctors, teachers, engineers ; many more are clerks doing a daily routine job with enthusiasm and efficiency untainted by the corruption which has become a problem in neighbouring countries. The guiding hand is exercised by a small body which today numbers 847 British officials sprinkled over the country.
Why there should be any apparent misgivings, and just at a moment when plans are afoot to set up an Assembly of sixty members with legislative and executive- powers, requires some explanation. It is to be sought in the war period, when, incredible as it seemed to many Sudanese, the western " imperialists " began to talk of " self-determination.' The politically minded—and there are not more than too,000 of 7,000,000 Sudanese who can be so described— were divided in their reaction. They were in any case divided, one large section of the Moslem community (two-thirds of the population) adhering to the religious leadership of Sir All Mirghani and another large section to Sir Abdel Rahman, posthumous son of the Mandi. There were also, as in all Middle East countries which lack large- scale enterprise to employ educated persons, those who held Govern- ment posts and those who would have liked to. Moreover, their Government was itself under a dual control, divided between Britain and Egypt.
It is very natural that these conditions should have produced two political parties : the Umma, consisting largely of followers of Sir Abdel Rahman, of limited British sympathies and strong in the administration ; the Ashigga, which has the blessing of Sir All Mirghani in Khartoum and of Nokrashi Pasha in Cairo, and whose representative, led by Ismael Eff. El Azhari, left Cairo on May 22nd for America to publicise the cause of the unity of the Nile Valley. Some would say that the Ashigga, whose Mirghanist support comes from the north and east, are only playing with Egypt in order to loosen the British hold and after that the offered hand of the weaker partner. Others would say that the Ashigga appeal derives strength from the precedent of British policy in India and Burma ; that the Sudan will still require help if Britain drops out, preferably that of Egypt, where there are jobs to be had, " educated " wives to be found and where fabulous projects are brewing for the harnessing of the Nile waters. As to the Umma, strongest in the south and west, here may be a neo-Mandist movement, which would have no difficulty in rallying all elements to national unity when its motto " Sudan for the Sudanese" comes nearer to being realised.
I would say that at this present stage these two parties are simply feeling their way, among their own peoples and beyond. If there is any rift between them, it is probably not in their broad ultimate aims, but in divided loyalties to two much respected Moslem leaders.
The approach to a new problem by subject peoples and the Sudanese have always been subject to some stronger Power—is often oblique and equivocal. Umma is casting about at home, while the Ashigga, with Egypt, goes fishing in Lake Success. It is an odd mission when seen from the background of Khartoum, for it bears no relation to the real needs or well-being of the Sudanese, but is prompted by the designs of a few individuals and party factions in Cairo.
So far these activities have done nothing to disturb the calm of the Sudan. The country is a model of well-ordered and altruistic govern- ment. Neither Umma nor Ashigga has political or welfare pro- grammes for internal consumption. That is the business of the Sudan Government, and the Sudan Government now has in hand a number of schemes financed from a general reserve fund built up by the long and careful management of nationalised enterprise such as cotton-production and railway and steamer services. The plan, to cover five years—ten in the case of education—is assisted by a British Government grant of £2,000,oco awarded to the Sudanese
in recognition of their war services. If the same resolve were shown on the political side, and all parties could apply themselves to work .for the independence of the Sudan at a fixed date, say 196o, then everyone concerned would gain in spirit and purpose. That would mean an agreement with the Sudan outside the scope of Anglo- Egyptian treaty-revision. The British official in Khartoum would like to think that possible. Since he cannot, he holds to the view that he will be taking his name-plate off the garden entrance only when plans for Sudanese independence are complete and effective.
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