Disintegration

S p e c u l a t i o n as to what “ might have happened ” is usually “ love’s labour lost But we cannot help expressing regret that the efficiency and zeal of the Sudanese intelligence service brought about the arrest of the political emissaries who thought that they were leaders. Had they reached Cairo and shot their bolt, the harm which their loquacity might have done could hardly have been greater than has been the havoc wrought by their imprisonment. Shakespeare gave the key-note to conditions which then obtained when he wrote that-

But whether these lines do or do not attach too much importance to the arrest at Wady Haifa of those two insignificant trouble-makers, it is a matter of record that their incarceration provoked on -25th June a full-dress debate in the House of Lords in which Lord Grey of Fallodon and Lord Curzon of Kedleston took part and in which Lord Parmoor, speaking for the Ministry of the day, said :—

“ I want to say, in absolutely definite language, that His Majesty’s Government is not going to abandon the Sudan in any sense whatever. It recognizes the obligations which have been taken towards the Sudanese and it regards those obligations as of a character which this Government could not abandon without a very serious loss of prestige in all these Eastern districts.” 1

This ministerial declaration had its repercussion in Egypt. Saad Zaghlul Pasha tendered his resignation to his Monarch. It was refused. The power of the

Egyptian Prime Minister appeared to be greater than ever. While he was listening to the applause of his admirers, the House of Commons discussed the Sudan question. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, declared on ioth July that :—

“ The position of the Sudan in relation to Egypt and ourselves has fundamentally changed on account of the independence of Egypt. . . . The position I have always taken up is, let us negotiate as quickly as possible. But I have said this : While the negotiations are pending neither Egypt nor ourselves ought to destroy the status quo ; that must be honourably understood.”