DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4995#0067
42 LECTURE ON EGYPT.
Soudan The result of two years' study was a report to the
effect that a light and cheap railway from Wady Haifa
to Khartoom (550 miles) would be of inestimable value
to trade, government, and civilisation, and that in a
few years the traffic would probably be sufficient to
give a return on the outlay, but that it would be un-
desirable to make any railway into Darfour.
The importance of the railway to Khartoom cannot
be over-estimated, either for its immediate or remote
influence. It will furnish the cultivated land near the
Nile with an outlet for its produce which at present it
does not possess, vast regions on both sides of the rail-
way will have access to it by camel routes, and at its
Khartoom terminus the Blue Nile for a short distance
and the White Nile for a very long distance, will con-
tinue the communication into Central Africa.
After due consideration I was authorised to let the
works by contract and proceed with the construction
of the Eailway, called for convenience the ' Soudan
Railway,' and about sixty miles of its length have been
completed and are available for traffic. Unfortunately
financial difficulties have pressed so heavily upon
Egypt that this great and useful work has been inter-
rupted, and will probably for the present be abandoned.
My surveys and reports, however, will remain, and
when Egypt has recovered from the effects of its
wasteful extravagance this work and others on which I
have reported—such as the Barrage—will be resumed
and carried out. :
Soudan The result of two years' study was a report to the
effect that a light and cheap railway from Wady Haifa
to Khartoom (550 miles) would be of inestimable value
to trade, government, and civilisation, and that in a
few years the traffic would probably be sufficient to
give a return on the outlay, but that it would be un-
desirable to make any railway into Darfour.
The importance of the railway to Khartoom cannot
be over-estimated, either for its immediate or remote
influence. It will furnish the cultivated land near the
Nile with an outlet for its produce which at present it
does not possess, vast regions on both sides of the rail-
way will have access to it by camel routes, and at its
Khartoom terminus the Blue Nile for a short distance
and the White Nile for a very long distance, will con-
tinue the communication into Central Africa.
After due consideration I was authorised to let the
works by contract and proceed with the construction
of the Eailway, called for convenience the ' Soudan
Railway,' and about sixty miles of its length have been
completed and are available for traffic. Unfortunately
financial difficulties have pressed so heavily upon
Egypt that this great and useful work has been inter-
rupted, and will probably for the present be abandoned.
My surveys and reports, however, will remain, and
when Egypt has recovered from the effects of its
wasteful extravagance this work and others on which I
have reported—such as the Barrage—will be resumed
and carried out. :