Christian scholars in Sudan educational establishments is so small that it has been found impracticable to have separate religious instruction for each denomination. As a matter of fact, however, non-Mohammedan pupils are afforded corresponding instruction in their own faith should their parents so desire, and provided a teacher is available; and such is the case in all primary schools.

So far as the teaching of the Mohammedan religion is concerned, it may be pointed out that such religious instruction is only imparted to those pupils who are destined to become Kadis-i.e. religious judges-and teachers in the Sudan. Other pupils merely read the Korán, and receive no special religious education. The proportion of school-hours allotted to the study of Islamism each week cannot be regarded as excessive, amounting as it does to one hour daily during the four years that the primary course of study continues, as compared with eight hours per week for Arabic and the same for English, five hours for arithmetic, and three each for geometry and map-drawing.

Since the reoccupation of the Sudan, education has advanced with remarkable continuity along the original lines of the scheme for public instruction evolved, with care and forethought, by the late Director, Mr James Currie, C.M.G., who held the post of Director of Education for fifteen years. But one need not go back more than ten years to perceive how great has been the progress made in the number of pupils receiving instruction at the various schools in the Sudan. In 1905, the total was 2605, which showed an increase of 472 over the number of the previous year. At the end of 1913 there were 5226 pupils, of whom 5000 were Moslems. Little effort has been made hitherto to educate women, while the institution of some simple educational system among the negroid races of the Southern Sudan has yet to be tried.

Next to education the greatest success achieved has been in the direction of transportation. It is not easy to exaggerate the perplexity of the problems which confronted the Administration when, in 1899, they took formal possession of nearly one million square miles of country, a country almost as large as Argentina, the exact limits of which were still subjects of dispute with other nations-France, Belgium, Italy and Abyssinia.

Since then delimitation commissions have settled all outstanding boundary questions; and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan now presents itself as a compact and mature Protectorate, more than nine-tenths of which are wisely and justly administered, the other tenth being uninhabitable for Europeans or even Egyptians.

To hope to cover such a wide expanse of country by anything approaching a complete system of railways was obviously out of the question. There existed neither the money to pay for it, nor the population to make use of it. Nevertheless much has been accomplished, for the length of railway-track now in operation exceeds 1500 miles, whereas in 1896 there existed less than 50 miles of line, and this was merely an old and useless military track. The gross railway revenue has risen from E124,4167. in 1903 to E516,8767. in 1913, while the percentage of working expenses to gross revenue has been reduced from 1102 to 76-7 per cent.

The navigation of the Nile has progressed almost equally well; a first-class fleet of steamers, belonging exclusively to the Government, now plies upon the waters of the Nile. No private company is permitted to carry passengers or freight in competition; but the ports are open to the shipping of the whole world, and show a satisfactory increase in the tonnage recorded. The international tonnage of vessels visiting Port Sudanthe principal port in the country-rose from 312,770 in 1907 to nearly 700,000 in 1914. Since the Government established regular mail steamers-which, in the face of many physical difficulties (of which shortage of water is the worst), are maintained throughout the year-great improvement in the carrying trade has been manifested. The rank vegetation known as 'sudd,' which formerly acted as a continual menace to the river navigation, has now been for the most part removed, and even where found still existing in great quantities is prevented from closing the channel to steamers passing to and fro. In 1905 the sudd' was found so obstructive, and so persistently blocked navigation on the Upper Nile, that a whole fleet of steamers had to be engaged to do battle against it. To-day one hardly hears of any serious delay being occasioned through this cause; and even the less-used channels are being freed.

Of public roads the country can now boast some thousands of miles. In 1906 there were barely 1600 miles of roads open, and many of these were merely cleared tracks, unmetalled and unbridged. To-day the mileage may probably be put at 5000, while some of the roads are so well constructed that mechanical traction over them is quite possible. Bridges of steel and of wood, wells at intervals which vary according to requirements, telephone wires stretching even through the tenantless desert, and nearly 10,000 miles of over-head telegraph wires, facilitate communications throughout the country.

Trade and industry, aided and encouraged by so many improvements, have responded well; but for the misfortune of a low Nile for the past three years the latest statistics would have afforded far better results than they do. Nevertheless, they show that the total value of the external trade has risen from E2,135,0047. in 1907 to E3,294,9627. in 1913; the value of the imports has advanced during the same period from E1,604,1377. to E2,109,7767., while the exports have more than doubled, growing from E449,3297. to E1,185,1867.

Agriculture continues to be an uncertain pursuit in the Sudan owing to its dependence upon the rainfall in some districts, especially those of the Red Sea littoral, and to the seasonable rise of the Nile in others. For three years in succession the river has failed, occasioning much distress among the cultivators. In five years' time at the latest, however, the great Ghezireh irrigation scheme, which, at a cost of 1,300,000l., is destined to bring incalculable benefits to the Sudan by providing an abundance of water, will, to a great extent, offset the disappointments and losses occasioned by an erratic Nile. A permanent source of wealth-agriculture and cotton cultivation combined-will thus be provided, with the practical certainty that no further violent fluctuation in the prosperity of the people, who are largely dependent upon cultivation of the soil, will occur. Fortunately even with the present discouraging situation, by reason of which the expansion of the cultivated area is limited by

* Since this article was written, the outbreak of war in Europe has caused all work in connexion with this and other irrigation enterprises in Egypt and the Sudan to be suspended.

climatic conditions, the returns show that the area under crops has been enlarged, the energy and enterprise of the people proving remarkably stable. The Administration has devoted much time, consideration and money to placing Sudanese agriculture upon a firm footing. The amount of crops under cultivation in 1913 reached a total of 2,255,226 feddans * against 1,847,021 feddans in 1912.

That the material well-being of the people has improved since the establishment of Anglo-Egyptian administration seems clear from the steady advance which is shown in their ability to purchase certain luxuries, to which the majority of them must have been almost complete strangers, even so recently as a decade ago. Their tastes and requirements, it would seem, can now be satisfied, even at a time when poor agricultural seasons have to be faced. Since 1908, native purchases of imported cotton fabrics advanced in value from E391,0471. to E503,6167.; of sugar, from E133,6261. to E258,7501.; of coffee, from E37,8631. to E67,5451.; of tea, from E27,7217. to E39,1147., and of foreign spices--of which the Sudanese are inordinately fond-from E5,4387. to E12,6237.

The steady improvement in the country's finances affords further testimony to the remarkable economic expansion of the Sudan. In 1898 the entire revenue, which had been estimated to produce E80007., amounted to a little over E35,000l.; to-day it exceeds E1,644,0007. There exists no longer any necessity for the annual contribution received from Egypt; the parent country, over a period of 15 years-from 1899 to 1913-had found an annual sum ranging between E391,7907. (in 1904) and E516,3457. (in 1911) to enable the Sudan budget to be balanced. The Government has now elected to walk henceforth alone and unaided; it is even endeavouring to repay gradually to Egypt the large advances which have been made at various times towards the cost of its economic development. The capital sum of that debt, which has been already slightly reduced, stands to-day at E5,198,7001.

It may, perhaps, be suggested that the Administration has acted rather precipitately in abandoning the Egyptian

*One feddan = 1·038 acres.

annual contribution; this, time will show. The loss to the Sudan unquestionably comes at a moment which could scarcely have been worse chosen on account of the poor state of the country's chief source of revenuetaxation upon agricultural produce-the heavy expenditure upon grain for a partly-famishing people, and the payment falling due upon a portion of the new Sudan loan of 3,000,000l., including the expenses of management and those of the sinking fund, both of which must be found by the Government out of revenue. The financial progress of the Sudan will, therefore, be watched with great interest for the next year or so; inasmuch, however, as the situation is fundamentally sound, and the permanent advantages accruing from the great Ghezireh irrigation scheme approach nearer and nearer to realisation, no reason for anxiety can be said to exist.

Lord Kitchener, speaking at Khartoum early in 1912, declared: The future is bright, and the good administration in the Sudan, of which I am glad to see abundant proofs, will, I feel sure, result in a steady extension of the prosperity of the people.' If, since these words were uttered, a slight set-back has occurred in the wellbeing of the people for reasons already fully explained, their present position nevertheless reflects the ultimate and even the speedy result of the painstaking, cautious and eminently honest government which the country enjoys. Much has been done, much remains to do. The hybrid form of government,' as Lord Cromer has called it, has worked so well that not even the most pronounced pessimist can pretend that the experiment-introduced in the face of the most determined opposition upon the part of conventional diplomatists and many international jurists-has failed to justify the policy of Lord Salisbury. Probably the very unconventionality and novelty of the essay appealed to that great Foreign Minister, who, moreover, must have known something of the sterling ability of the men to whom the future administration of the Sudan was to be entrusted-Cromer, Kitchener and Wingate, a triumvirate which will assuredly go down into history as one of the most brilliantly successful regenerating influences known.

PERCY F. MARTIN.