Towards Sudan Independence
For the past seven years Anglo-Egyptian exchanges on the subject of the Sudan have been concerned with generalities, and there' has been no chance of agreement. General Neguib has brought the debate down to points of detail, and at last a good chance of agreement exists. The Note which was handed by General Neguib to the British Ambassador on Monday started from the basic assumption that the Sudanese have the right to exercise self-determination, and that the lines along which the Sudan Government has been working to achieve this end are the right ones. The Note (which is the outcome of the discussions that took place in Cairo between Egyptian and Sudanese leaders) envisages a transition period of not more than three years, during which the present administration shall come to an end and a purely Sudanese administration take its place. At the end of this time the Sudanese are to decide their future form of Government. Two commissions and one committee, it is suggested in the note, should be set up—to assist the Governor-General in the exercise of his powers, to see that the elections are fairly conducted, and to watch over the " Sudanisation " of the various departments. There are several points in the note, some of them important ones, which will need further clarification. The rather strange commission which is to " advise " the Governor-General, and on occasion overrule him is not a happy expedient. But on the whole the Note does seem to offer a workable arrangement, which the British and Sudanese Governments can reasonably co- operate. Whether at the end of it all the Sudanese turn out to be happier or more prosperous than they have been under Condominium rule is another question,-but one which has now_ dropped out of the debate.
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