Lord Salisbury, when questioned in the House of Commons on February 6, 1899, about the 1899 agreement, gave a peculiar answer, stating, "A long time will pass before Sudan becomes as calm and quiet as one of the streets of London is now. I draw the questioner's attention to a man famous in England's history, even nicknamed 'William the Conqueror,' who did not conquer all of England and Gaul - until he said - we are taking hold of Sudan for two reasons: the first is that Sudan is among Egypt's possessions, which we occupy, and the second is the right of conquest." However, this statement is contradicted by the book of Butros Pasha Ghali to Lord Cromer in 1898, and the Khedivial order on January 15, 1884, attaching Sudan to the Ministry of War. Sudan was never a "property" without an owner, so that the claim of conquest could be made. England itself protested this claim in 1898 when Marchand reached Fashoda, stating that Sudan's owner is the Khedive, and no country is allowed to occupy this property while its owner is present. As for the right of conquest, it is reserved for Egypt alone, because Muhammad Ali and Ismail did not commission England to conquer Sudan. If England assisted Khedive Abbas II in reclaiming his possessions, or rather in pacifying them and cutting off the rebels, it was not invited to do so, nor did it impose any conditions on the Khedive for an action it volunteered for and donated. Even if it had made conditions with him, those conditions would have been invalid because he did not have the right to contract for land under the sovereignty of the Turkish Sultan. Thus, from Lord Salisbury's statement that day, it followed that the Foreign Secretary, Roderick, said in the session of February 18, 1899, "We are not bound in the Sudan issue by any treaty, law, or regulation." However, the agreement of January 19, 1899, stated that the Egyptian flag alone would remain flying over Suakin, the city that remained Egyptian with the acknowledgment of the English, and the authority of the various rulers was only abolished on July 20, 1899. Why then did they keep the Egyptian flag alone raised over it?