The liking and the respect are repaid tenfold. There could be no better foundation for sound government, and from Suakin to El Obeid, and from Halfa to Gondokoro the Englishman is obeyed and trusted as no ruler of the Soudan has ever been before. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to add that all these men are young. The Sirdar himself, old in experience, is young in years, and from him downwards, whether on the civil or the military side, there is hardly a man over forty. The administration of these vast regions in a tropical climate is no sinecure. A young country needs youth and activity in its rulers. It must not be forgotten that we have been immensely assisted in our task by the Egyptians. All the minor administrative posts are held by them. Most of the clerks in the various Government offices are Syrians or Copts from Egypt. Without this small fry of officialdom, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to carry on at all. Many of these Egyptians have done and are doing their work faithfully and well, but it has been a hard struggle to fight against the old Soudan traditions. In former days, when a man went from Egypt to serve in the Soudan, he expected either to die or to get rich in a very short time. Death was always before his eyes, so he made haste to be rich while he could. To the fellah the Soudan meant nothing less than death; his family mourned him as lost, and lost he generally was; but the official, if he came back at all, was set up for life. Of course, any case of taking a bribe or extortion is severely punished whenever detected; but, in spite of this, corruption undoubtedly does go on to a certain extent, so much is it in harmony with the traditions of the official and the expectations of his victim. Moreover, the Egyptian is not very capable of enduring a bad climate. He seems to give up heart immediately. A class of natives educated enough to take his place in the Government service is badly required, but does not at present exist. A great deal is often talked of the evils of military government, and, of course, there comes a time when military methods are out of place. But I doubt very much if any set of civilians could have done so well with a country like the Soudan as the soldiers have. Whatever may be the soldier’s fault, what he is told to do, that he will set to work to do, and very likely he will carry it through successfully, however little training he may have had, where a cleverer man might be dismayed by difficulties. In fact, the government is military because it is mainly carried on by soldiers (there was no one else to do it), but it is run on civilian lines. Spend a morning in the office of a Mudir or Governor of a province, and you will go away with an enhanced opinion of the powers of a British officer.