THE OPENING ITI" OF THE SOITDAN.
Tn; last week of January is a memorable date in the annals of Egypt and the Soudan. It was the -week which twenty-one years ago saw Gordon dare "the high that proved too high," and give his life for the country. Since then the Soudan has passed through a chequered minority ; but with the opening of the railway from the Nile to the Red Sea last Saturday it may fairly be said to have celebrated its coming of age. The railway was once a project of Ismail's, that most ineffective of dreamers. The man who instructed hie engineers to make the gauge of his new Nile line the same as that of South Africa, since it would save trouble in the end, had no common imagina- tion; but, though he saw the economic value of a railway from Suakim, he was soon distracted by the Wady Haifa project, and relinquished that in turn after building some fifty miles of it. Some .years later the idea was revived as one of the alternative schemes for the relief of Khartoum ; but, rightly or wrongly, the Nile route was chosen, and with the triumph of Mahdism darkness settled down for a decade upon the country. When Sir Herbert Kitchener began his slow advance to the reconquest, it seemed best to him to build his line from Wady Haifa across the great bend of the Nile, since the Suakim route involved serious strategical dangers. Now that wars are over and military considerations are of less account, the obvious economic value of the project impressed the new rulers of the Soudan and their Egyptian superiors. It would shorten the distance between Khartoum and the sea by nine hundred miles, and the main need of the Soudan is increased facilities for export and import. Accordingly, in October, 1904, the work began in earnest, and the three hundred and twenty-five miles have been constructed within fourteen months. Nor has the cost been great, for the total spent is less than a million and a half, and. the cost per mile has been only XE.4,150. When we consider the difficulties of the task—the wastes of sand, the hollows and the ridges to be traversed, the scarcity of water, the heat in summer and the torrential rains in winter—the modest sum spent and the speed with which the work has been finished reflect the highest credit upon Colonel Macauley and his colleagues. Not only has the line been built, but as its terminus a new port on the Red Sea—Port Soudan— has been created, with a more spacious harbour and a better climate than Suakim. The new railway is to be the centre of many others. A line from Kareima to Abu Hamed, which is almost completed, will bring the rich province of Dongola into direct communication with the sea,. There will be a branch to Kassala, where great irrigation works are in progress, and a branch up the left bank of the Blue Nile. A fourth line from El Obeid to the Nile will give Kordofan an outlet for its exports. The Soudan has found its economic base nine hundred miles nearer to hand.
To any one with the kaleidoscopic changes of the country in the past twenty years in his mind the scene at Port Soudan last Saturday must have been of singular interest. Lord Cromer formally opened the railway in the presence not only of Egyptian and Soudanese officials, but of Arab merchants from the coast ports, neighbouring Sheikhs, and wild tribesmen from the Hinterland. His speech, spoken in English, was afterwards read in Arabic, and was then translated into the vernacular by Sir Rudolf Slatin. It dealt with the fundamental economic questions of the country with that simplicity and directness which is the secret of Lord Cromer's power. Hitherto the Soudan Railway up the Nile has been rather a military than a commercial undertaking. It made the reconquest of the country possible, and it enabled the new rulers to import the first necessaries of civilisation, but its trading character has always been subordinate to its administrative. It is not run as a revenue-producing expedient, for its receipts at present just balance expenditure. But the Red Sea. line is thoroughly commercial in its character, an artery of com- munication which will open up the Soudan to the world. On this point Lord Cromer's words are emphatic. Money must be spent in development work before the country can become self-supporting. Peace is scarcely six years old, and the land when taken over was gutted to its foundations by two decades of war. It is the Egyptian taxpayer who meets the cost of such works, but they are the only means whereby the Soudan can pease Ito,gbe a charge on his hands. "Trust on," is Lord Cromer's advice to him, "and think to-morrow will repay."
One point in the speech is worth special notice, for it lays down a policy which is of general application. Fears have been expressed, says Lord Cromer, that the line from Suakim will be a serious competitor with the line from Alexandria, and that Egypt in paying for it is going against her own interest. To this he replies that the railway will not divert trade, but will create trade, and both lines will have the benefit of the new expansion. Whatever makes the Soudan more prosperous is to the benefit of Egypt, even though in time to come the new line may have the lion's share of it. If the Soudan continued backward, the old line from Alexandria would not pay ; if it prospers, the old line will benefit, though the new line may benefit more. This is sound economic truth, and a convincing answer on the facts. But Lord Cromer goes further, and affirms the doctrine of the solidarity of the interests of the whole Nile Valley, apart from the interests of any particular line of railway. "I always regard with a certain amount of suspicion any arguments based upon the necessity of keeping one locality—or perhaps in this case I should say a whole continent—in a backward condition in order that some other locality should prosper." We recommend these words to the consideration of those who argue that the Transvaal should pass a self-denying ordinance to benefit the Cape Colony railways and Customs. But in this case there is a special truth in the doctrine, for "the material guarantee of Egypt is intimately bound up with that of the Soudan." The Nile is the source of Egypt's wealth, and the Soudan commands the Nile. Any great dams which may be necessary in the future will be constructed, not in Egypt proper, but in the -Upper Nile Valley. Whatever tends, therefore, to the peace and prosperity of the Soudan is Egypt's very particular interest. We would call attention, also, to Lord Cromer's wise words on the responsibilities of the new civilisation. The trade which will flow into the country will not all be legitimate or desirable. The drink-seller, the usurer, and the financial adventurer will accompany the honest merchant. But Lord Cromer proposes no heroic measures of exclusion, even though the country is starting with a clean slate. Such protection is never successful. Sound. commerce is the only cure for bad, and if given a fair field will keep it in check. Granted good laws and an efficient administra- tion, and the merits of the new civilisation may be trusted to cure the ills.
In an impressive passage Lord Cromer referred to his own part in the regeneration of the country. "At my time of life I can only hope to stand on the top of an administrative Pisgah. I can scarcely hope to enter the promised land." No man, he declared, was really neces- sary to the future of the country. The foundations had been laid broad and deep, both in internal well-being and international goodwill. If any worker, even the most prominent, went, "all that need be said would be, 11 n'y a qu'un Anglais de moms.'" Egyptian policy on its present lines had become an unquestioned axiom of the British Government, and there was no fear of turning back. This we believe to be true. The future of the Nile Valley has gone out of party politics; it has even gone out of any special administrative hands. Lord Cromer's regime would be perpetuated under any successor. But this fact does not diminish the gratitude of Egypt and Britain, and, indeed, of the world in general, to the one man who lifted the country from the slough of bankruptcy and confusion, and made its future secure. To have so ordered things that even he is not indispensable is Lord Cromer's proudest achievement.
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