Sir Michael Hicks-Beach proposed on Monday a vote whicI, led
to a most interesting debate. It appears that already the reconquest of the Soudan has cost £1,805,000, and
will cost before Khartoum has fallen about 2750,000 more. The past expenditure has been provided for, and the British Government proposes to meet the future by a grant-in-aid of £798,000 to the Government of the Khedive. This grant-in- aid will take the form of a remission, a previous loan of the amount mentioned being changed into a gift. The loan being thus extinguished, the Egyptian Government recovers its Treaty power of borrowing up to one million sterling, and the estimated future cost of the campaign will thus be met. The Chancellor of the Exchequer fully admitted that the war as yet did not pay, because Dongola had been denuded of population and all trade destroyed by the Khalifa's oppression, but already immigration has begun, -industry is reviving, and a good crop is expected even this year. The expenses of maintaining order will not be large, for the people are heartily on our side, and the improved 'Egyptian Army can do all necessary work. It used to do it when it was much feebler than at present, for when Sir Michael visited the Soudan thirty-five years ago he found the -roads as safe as in England. The conquered provinces will in fact repay Egypt almost at once, while the relief to Egypt -from its dread of invasion from the South will be immense. That is to say, as Sir Michael should have added, it will be immense if our occupation lasts. If we depart, Darfour would at once flood the Soudan, and ultimately Egypt, with hungry desperadoes as cruel as wolves and as destructive as locusts.
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