Page:The empire and the century.djvu/846

 and capacities, were only a few items. The consequences of Egyptian misrule had been accentuated a thousandfold by the dark days of dervish dominion. Wax, pestilence, and famine had played their dreadful parts. Lands once populous had become a wilderness. It was calculated that out of eight millions of population at the time of the Mahdi's rebellion no less than six had been altogether swept away in less than twenty years. The remnant had lost all the little civilization they once possessed; they had almost forgotten how to cultivate their lands. Education of any kind was totally non-existent; religion was replaced by fanaticism and superstition. In the distant provinces and along the frontiers of Abyssinia and Darfur a state of anarchy prevailed, and the only commerce was that in slaves. As for revenue, it seemed that the whole country must be dependent for years to come for the barest necessities of administration on the revenues of Egypt.

One difficulty, at least, the new rulers were determined to avoid. The Sudan was not to suffer, as Egypt had suffered, from the evils of internationalism. The Convention of 1899 between Great Britain and Egypt regulates the political status of the Sudan, and lays down that the British flag is to float side by side with the Egyptian. If the Sudan were merely a dependency of Egypt, it might well be argued that it was also apart of the Turkish Empire, and that the Capitulations should apply. But the British flag exorcises this danger. The mixed tribunals and consular jurisdiction are, happily, names signifying nothing south of Haifa. The British administrators were able to set to work unhampered by these diplomatic fetters.

The British flag had also an effect of another kind. It would have been impossible to persuade the Arabs to submit patiently to the dominion of the Eg5rptians, whom they had learnt to hate and despise. Direct British rule, of which the flag was the symbol easily understood by all, was a totally different matter. The proud tribesmen of Kassala and Kordofan yielded easily