Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/641

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SUDAN
615


were made in the use of motor tractors and cars on the roads, with at first but moderate success. In 1920 the use of aeroplanes by offi- cials for visiting distant posts was first recorded. This followed the laying-out in 1919 of a number of aerodromes and the passage in Feb. 1920 of aeroplanes engaged in the first Cairo to Cape flight. This flight led to the discovery, from the air, by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, of the volcanic character of a range of hills in the Bayuda desert (see AFRICA: Exploration).

On the conquest of Darfur the telegraph system was extended to its capital El Fasher. Telephone exchanges are established in the chief towns. The first wireless telegraphic stations were erected in 1915 at Port Sudan, Malakal, Nasser and Gambeila, a chain extending from the Red Sea to S.W. Abyssinia. In 1916-8 five other wireless stations were erected, three in Darfur, the others in the far south, at Wau and Mongalla.

Finance. The subvention in aid of civil expenditure made to the Sudan by the Egyptian Government, which began in 1899 with an allocation of .156,000, reached its maximum in 1902 with E.268 t - ooo, after which it was gradually reduced. In 1912 it stood at .163,000. In 1913 it ceased to be paid in accordance with an arrangement by which the Egyptian Government credited the Sudan with the amount of the customs collected in Egypt on goods enter- ing and issuing from the Sudan, estimated at .85,000. The Egyptian Government, however, continued to defray military expenditure on account of the Sudan, estimated at .172,000. The insufficient rains and low floods with other external factors exercised an adverse effect on the economic situation just when the subvention was withdrawn. Nevertheless, the Sudan budgets of 1913-4-5 closed with a slight surplus. The more prosperous conditions which followed eased the situation and allowed an increase of taxation without impairing trade. Revenue, which in 1911 stood at .1,664,- ooo, rose in 1919 to .2,950,000, with a surplus over expenditure of .267,000. The budget for 1920 was balanced at .3,500,000. A traders' tax was imposed in 1913, the trading community as a class having up to then paid nothing in direct taxation. In 1919 E. 6% was payable on assessed annual profits exceeding .500. In 1917 an excise duty was imposed on sugar, in 1919 the duty on to- bacco was raised ; heavy increases were made in railway and steamer rates both for goods and passengers. The railway and steamer services yielded a substantial profit (.210,000 in 1915, .286,000 in 1919). The rise in the price of all commodities was the main cause of the increase in taxation. The surpluses obtained since 1916 were passed to a reserve fund, the only source available, apart from bor- rowing, for capital expenditure. On Jan. I 1920 the reserve fund

amounted to .426,000 only, the "reserve" being almost wholly

1 expended year by year on necessary works.

Education. The Government schools are all in the northern or Moslem half of the Sudan; the only schools among the pagans in the southern half are those of the missionary societies. In the north there was a considerable increase in the number of boys attending

' elementary vernacular schools, while the sending of girls to school became more popular with parents. There were in 1919 five ele- mentary girls' schools, besides higher schools for girls managed by missionaries. There was after the war a considerable demand for boys with a technical or industrial education. In 1920 over 400 boys trained in the Gordon College workshops were in employment, as to three-fourths in Government service. (F. R. C.)

Political History. The political status of the Anglo-Egyp- tian Sudan remained in 1921 as defined by the treaty between Great Britain and Egypt of Jan. 18 1899. Although the country passed through a period of depression in 1913-5, comparing 1920 with 1910 there was a distinct advance in the well-being and resources of the people. The recovery from the disastrous rule of the Mahdi and Khalifa was shown by the large increase in population. The period 1910-20 was also notable for a marked growth of confidence in the Government. The loyalty of the leading chiefs and notables was never in doubt, and throughout the World War the vast majority of the people re- mained peaceful and contented. The number of minor oper- ations undertaken both before and after the war were mainly against primitive tribes in the far south and did not affect the 1 more highly developed provinces.

By the annexation of Darfur in 1916 (see below) the area under the control of the Sudan Government was increased to over 1,000,000 sq. miles. This vast region was administered in 1921 by some no British officers and officials, assisted by a technical staff. The military establishment included 14,000 men of the Egyptian army, with one British infantry battalion and a detachment of garrison artillery at Khartum. A new unit, the Western Arab Corps, was raised for service in Darfur.

The Lado Enclave (see 16.60) was transferred in 1910 from the Belgian Congo to the Sudan and added to the province of Mongalla. In the same year an outbreak of the old fanatical


spirit had to be suppressed in Sennar, and during 1910-2 minor expeditions dealt with local disturbances in Kordofan and Mongalla. Others were also undertaken in 1914-8 to deal with turbulent elements in the Nuba Mountains traditionally obnoxious to authority and to keep order in the equatorial regions, where the Nuer and Dinka tribes gave a good deal of trouble. The most important of these operations was in the Nuba province in 1917-8. After a number of collisions, in which Capt. R. W. Hutton was killed (April 1917), a considerable force was sent in the autumn of that year and after a somewhat arduous campaign the hill tribes were in Feb. 1918 reduced to submission. In 1918 the Sudanese troops aided in operations against the warlike Turkana, a tribe, much given to raiding, living on the Sudan-Uganda border. Unfortunately neither the Sudan nor the Uganda Government had forces to spare to station troops permanently in this remote area.

An incident at Kassala towards the end of 1918 of no political importance is yet noteworthy as illustrative of the sporadic outbursts of fanaticism to which parts of the Sudan were liable. It was thus officially recorded:

" Without a word of warning and in the dead of night a band of some 40 fanatics, led by a religious lunatic, suddenly rushed the guard and inlying picket furnished by the Egyptian unit on the fort and then proceeded to attack the lines of the camel company of the Eastern Arab Corps. No longer aided by the element of surprise, the band suffered heavily in killed and wounded at the hands of the latter unit. The leader was amongst the killed and the few that escaped were ultimately accounted for by the camel company and the police."

Aggressive action by the Aliab section of the Dinkas in Mongalla province led to the despatch of a small force in 1919 under Maj. R. F. White, which was accompanied by the governor, Maj. C. H. Stigand. An attack by spearmen in the long grass led to the death (Dec. 8 1919) of these two valuable officers and other casualties, entailing a punitive expedition in the following year.

The completion of the railway from Khartum to El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, in 1911 enabled the Government better to control Darfur, where 'Ali Dinar ruled as a Sultan tributary to the Sudan; and, after the French occupation of Wadai, negotiations were in 1912 opened with France for the determination of boundaries by the inspector-general, Sir Ru- dolf von Slatin, on behalf of Great Britain and Egypt.

In Jan. 1912 King George and Queen Mary paid a visit to Port Sudan on their return journey from India, and a review was held at Sinkat by the King, at which representatives from almost every section of the Sudan were present. The scanty rainfall and abnormally low Nile of 1913 caused famine conditions in portions of Dongola and the Blue and White Nile provinces. Relief measures and the importation of large quantities of millet from India made a most beneficial impression on the populations affected. In April 1914 an exchange of certain dis- tricts on the Upper Nile was effected, in the interests of both administrations, with the Uganda Protectorate (see UGANDA).

On the outbreak of war with Turkey in Nov. 1914 the various provinces of the Sudan, notwithstanding the Moslem character of the majority, displayed perfect loyalty to the administration. In Darfur, on the other hand, the Sultan 'Ali Dinar renounced his allegiance, and, instigated by Turkish emissaries working through the Senussi sect, contemplated an invasion of the Sudan. His communications with the Senussites were cut off by posts of irregulars, and early in 1916, military operations were under- taken which led to the defeat and subsequent death of 'Ali Dinar (for the military operations, see SENUSSI). Darfur was thereafter administered as a province, and an Anglo-French convention, signed at Paris on Sept. 8 1919, at length settled the common frontier of Darfur and Wadai. The occupation of Darfur was followed by an expedition in cooperation with the French in the region north of Darfur against marauders of the Guraan tribe, who had given considerable trouble to both administrations. A garrison for Northern Uganda, whence troops had been withdrawn to meet the menace from German East Africa, was for a brief period provided by the Sudan Govern-