RED TAPE, 425 for a larger boat to take goods having been refused. The prohibition against merchants coming here was also retained, in spite of my earnest appeals that it might be annulled; therefore, ever since December of 1881, the officials have been absolutely cut off from all supplies, and have consequently experienced greater distress than in the year 1878-9, when the river was closed. Gordon, however, allowed merchants to come here, for he clearly saw how absurd such a measure was as a preventive against the export of slaves from this country. Well, the legislators in Khartum—foreigners and Arabs—may understand these things better than one like myself, who is not a Pasha; but I can tell you one thing, and that is, that under the present system they may quietly draw their pens through the names of our provinces in a couple of years. It isso ridiculous to dream of stopping the slavetrade in the Sudan by setting up a slave department in Kharttm with branch offices; to try and tie up our districts with the red tape of Egyptian bureaucratism is an idea that makes one’s hair stand on end. If the Government, besides the exploitation of the interior of Africa for pecuniary ends, which seems to have been the cue latterly, is really bent on carrying on a humanitarian mission there—and that was certainly Ismail Pasha’s intention—it can, in my opinion, only be done by uniting the Negro districts—the Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Equatorial Provinces—and separating them entirely from the Arab portions of the Sudan. Then a capable European Governor must be found for them, who has a love for the work, and will take an interest in the country, not one who does not care whether ‘blue men or green live by the Albert Lake.” He should have three to four steamers at his disposal, and should be commissioned to work out the details of the organisation, of the exploitation of the country, of the disposal of the products, and of matters affecting the slave-trade in conjunction with us, the local Governors. A commission in Khartum for slavery affairs, consisting of the Governor of the Sudan, or _ his representative, and the consuls, as well as five to six trustworthy natives, Mohammedans and Christians, should be in direct communication with the Governor of the Negro districts, ' whose residence should be at Sobat. Fashoda would of course