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THE SUDAN
they shall not exceed the corresponding duties for the time being leviable on goods entering Egypt from abroad. Duties may be levied on goods leaving the Sudan, at such rates as may from time to time be prescribed by Proclamation.
Article VIII
The jurisdiction of the Mixed Tribunals shall not extend, nor be recognised for any purpose whatsoever, in any part of the Sudan [except in the town of Suakin].*
Article IX
Until, and save so far as it shall be otherwise determined by Proclamation, the Sudan [with the exception of the town of Suakin]* shall be and remain under martial law.
Article X
No consuls, vice-consuls, or consular agents, shall be ac- credited in respect of nor allowed to reside in the Sudan, without the previous. consent of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.
Article XI
The importation of slaves into the Sudan, as also their ex- portation, is absolutely prohibited. Provision shall be made by Proclamation for the enforcement of this regulation..
Article XII
It is agreed between the two Governments that special attention shall be paid to the enforcement of the Brussels Act. of the 2nd July, 1890, in respect to the import, sale, and manufacture of fire-arms and their munitions, and distilled, or spirituous liquors.
Done in Cairo, the 19th January, 1899..
BOUTROS GHALI, CROMER.
The passages in square brackets were cancelled by a subsequent convention concluded on the 10th July, 1899.
D
Chapter 7
The First Stones Laid
R. SHIBEIKA closes his admirable study of British policy in the Sudan during the period antecedent to the inauguration of the Anglo-Egyptian Condomin- ium with the words "The one fact that stands out quite clearly from the study of British policy in the Sudan is that the Sudan question all through was considered as subsidiary to the Egyptian question.' That is essentially true of the period to which it relates, but it would not be an accurate statement in respect of the half-century that followed. The interests of the Sudan itself became paramount, while those of Egypt were at the same time carefully safeguarded; and in this chapter an attempt will be made to outline the principles observed by the new administration, the objective which it set before itself and the methods followed.
The objective can be most simply described as the replace- ment of the chaos of the past by an orderly system which should give justice to all and lead to the development of the country, social and economic, for the benefit of its inhabi- tants, without detriment to Egypt. No thought, of the emer- gence of an independent self-governing Sudan was worth entertaining at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Lord Cromer did not permit his speculations regarding the future to go beyond saying that, if and when the new con- stitution came to an end, to be replaced by 'some more robust, because more real political creation, its authors need not be- wail its fate'.*
The state of the Sudan was in every way deplorable. Its population had fallen during the Dervish régime from over 8,500,000 to less than 2,000,000 as a result of famine, disease and internecine warfare. Whole villages had been obliter- ated, cultivation was at a standstill, flocks and herds had been destroyed, date-palms cut down; slave-raiding was rampant, and there was no security for life or property. Revolts and
Cromer, II, 119.
*
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