Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/374

 366] FOKEIGN HISTOEY. [1899.

the administration of justice in Egypt was nevertheless yearly becoming more assured ; crime was decreasing ; the proportion of convictions to cases tried increased, and a slow respect for equity is taking hold even of official minds.

But, after all, the main interest in Egyptian history in 1899 came, as it did the year before, from warlike operations in the Soudan. The settlement of the rights of England and France in the valley of the Upper Nile proceeded quietly enough, on a basis which secured to England undisputed influence on the great river, and to France a " compact and homogeneous " ter- ritory, as a French semi-official note described it, from the Mediterranean in the north to Senegal and Congo in the south. The disappearance of the Khalifa, however, after the decisive campaign of the previous year, led to a certain degree of uneasi- ness as to the security of our new dominions, and his movements in the desert excited many rumours in the spring. Meanwhile the reorganisation of new territory proceeded. The Soudan was divided for administrative purposes into four first-class districts — Omdurman, Sennar, Kassala and Fashoda — and three second- class districts — Assuan, Wady Haifa and Suakin, and governors were appointed to carry on the administration. The publication of the terms of the Convention for the future government of the Soudan excited, of course, a certain amount of hostility in Paris, while it was received with equanimity by the rest of the world; but even Lord Kitchener found it too soon to hazard any definite opinion as to the value and resources of the vast dominions thus acquired. As the year went on rumours about the precarious position of the Khalifa increased, and in August the Sirdar reported an attempted Mahdist insurrection on the Blue Nile. Later in the autumn the Khalifa, who had gathered together a considerable body of followers, began to threaten mischief against us, and it became necessary to despatch a formidable expedition in pursuit. A force of Soudanese troops was accordingly organised under Sir Francis Wingate, which towards the end of November advanced upon the Khalifa's camp at Om Debrikat, and there secured a signal victory, which may be regarded as the crowning operation of the Soudan war. The Khalifa was killed in the battle, together with his brothers, his chief emirs, and all his leading followers, except Osman Digna who escaped; his army was entirely routed, and 9,000 prisoners fell into Colonel Wingate's hands. The death of the Khalifa Abdullahi, at the age of fifty-four, and the destruction of the last army which the Dervishes could put into the field, ended at once the career of a tyrant and the prolonged unrest of the Central Soudan. It put the seal upon the successes which made Lord Kitchener's reputation, and it left Egypt, free in future from the fear of attack upon her southern borders, to pursue unmolested her prosperous career.