847 93 THE SOUDAN.

Enclosure 2 in No. I.

Major-GeneraC Sir Lee Stack to Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby, My Lord, Khartou7n, Apil 25,120.

1 HAVE the honour to forward, for your Lordship’s information, my report on the finances, administration and condition of the Soudan for the period 1914-1919.

I have, &c.

LEE STACK, Major-General, Governor-General of the Soudan.

I.~INTRODUCTORY.

MUCH of the information in this report for the period of the first two years of the war is taken from reports which were supplied to Sir Reginald Wingate before his departure for Cairo in December 1916 to take up the appointment there of His Majesty’s High Commissioner for Ept.

Sir Reginald Wingate joined me Egyptian army in 1883 and served with it practically without a break until he succeeded Lord Kitchener as Sirdar and Governor-General in .December 1899. Throughout this time he -was closely and continuously associated with Soudan affairs, and when Lord Kitchener left for South Africa there was probably no man living with so wide a knowledge of the country and its problems. His term of office as Sirdar and Governor-General lasted till the date of his appointment as High Commissioner on the 1st January, 1917. Under his rule the Soudan developed from the state of desolation to which the Mahdist rule reduced it, into a peaceful land, inhabited by a contented people. A pre-eminent share in the credit for this transformation must be awarded to him.

, His personal influence in the country was remarkable. There was hardly a man of note in the Soudan who was not well-known to him, and prepared to give him his confidence as a friend. The value of this capacity of his for getting tlm confidence of the people cannot be over-estimated when it is considered how newly escaped the people were from a period of degrading oppression, and how little rea;son they had within the memory of man to think of their rulers other than as their enemies. When he left the Soudan he carried with him the regrets and the good wishes of all. Those who have carried on the administration after him on the lines he laid down have good cause to thank him for the legacy of loyalty and tranquillity which he left bkiind him, and which is a convincing testimony, if any were needed, to the trust and respect which his unfailing interest in their welfare had inspired in all classes of the people.

The outbreak of hostilities between Great Britian and Austria necessarily severed the connection of Sir Rudolf Von Slatin Pasha with this country.

His unique association with' the Soudan from the time he entered the Khedive’s service in 1878 up to his escape from the hands of the Khalifa in 1895 is a matter of history. His intimate acquaintance with the country and of its inhabitants was of the utmost value to the Intelligence Department in Egypt after that time up to and particularly during the re-conquest in 1896-7-8. In 1901 he was made Inspector-General of the Government, and from that time imtil Augu.-ii 1914 he was the Government’s principal adviser on all question that concerned native affairs. The value of his insight and experience in the establishment of a civilised Government in this country Cannot be too highly estimated. It may safely be said tha,t the task could not have been achieved wito the same smoothness and. facility but for his presence. His many friends feel the utmost regret at the unhappy turn of political events that made it impossible for him to return to the Soudan.

II.—GENERAL AND HISTORICAL.

The general situation in 1914 was briefly as follows:— A territory nearly a million square miles In extent, with a scattered population of about 4,000,000, was. governed by about 110, British officers and officials (excluding technical staff) distributed over fourteen provinces. The country roughly divides itself into two sections: the northern, inhabited by Arab tribes, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.