POLITICAL HISTORY. ]
E G
P T 703 February 1885. Colonel Sir Francis Grenfell succeeded organized a singularly efficient department, which now consists of General Sir Evelyn Wood in March 1885, and while 14 British officers, 39 Egyptian officers, and 284 non-commissioned under his command the army continued to improve, and officers and men. The Veterinary Department, represented originally by a simde fought successful actions at Gemazah, Arguin, Toski, and veterinary officer, who joined in 1883, now consists of two Tokar. At Toski the Dervish force was nearly annihilated. British British officers and five Egyptian officers, with 30 non-commisIn March 1892 Colonel Kitchener succeeded General sioned officers and men, who are selected for intelligence and Sir Francis Grenfell, and four years later began his education after one year’s service in the ranks. The ambitious Military School system of the Khedive Ismail successful reconquest of the Sudan. In June 1896, owing Pasha was replaced, in consequence of financial pressure, by a to the indefatigable exertions of Major Wingate, a pe£ smaller establishment in 1879, but, partly out of consideration for fected system of secret intelligence enabled the Sirdar to the capable French officer then at its head, no drastic changes bring an overwhelming force of 6 to 1 against the were enforced in 1883, nor until 1887, when the notoriously bad Dervish outpost at Firket and destroy it. In September state of the school necessitated its reorganization, which was effected by a British officer. A simpler programme was adopted : 1896 a skirmish at Hafir, with similarly successful tactics, elementary subjects were more thoroughly taught, and a knowledge gave the British commander the possession of Dongola! of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, fortification, military history, On the 7th August 1897 Colonel Hunter surprised and topography, drawing, geography, English, French, and Arabic annihilated a weak Dervish garrison at Abu Hamed, to was imparted. The 200 students remain for two years; the course is calculated to last for three years, but at present the which place, by the 31st October 1897, a railway had demand for officers exceeds the output. been laid across the Nubian desert from Wadi Haifa, The Supply Department is supervised by a British officer as a distance of 230 miles, the “record” construction dnector, who has under him the Tura Mills, where biscuits and of 5300 yards surveyed, embanked, and laid in one soap are produced much more cheaply than was possible under day having been attained. On the 26th December the contract system. A British officer supervises the stores, and equipment for both man and horse. The clothing 1897 the Italian troops handed over Kassala to Colonel clothing, for all arms of the service costs between £3 and £4 per head, and Parsons, It.A. On the 8th April 1898 a British division, the rations from 4d. to 5d. daily for each soldier. Guns and with the Egyptian army, destroyed the Dervish force equipment of ail kinds are, as a rule, purchased in the United under the Emir Mahmud Ahmed, on the Atbara river. Kingdom. The total annual expenditure is £500,000. On the assumption of command by the third Sirdar, then Colonel On the 2nd September the Khalifa attacked the British- Kitchener, the Surveyor-General’s Department was abolished ; the Egyptian troops at Kerreri, and being routed, his men Engineer, Ordnance, and Supply services were administered as dispersed; Omdurman was occupied, and on the 19th separate branches, while to a Financial Secretary was given the September the Egyptian flag was rehoisted at Fashoda. duty of preparing the Budget and making contracts, issuing pay carrying out a financial audit. On the 22nd September 1898 Gedaref was taken from andThe army has been gradually reduced since the Dervish wars, the Emir Ahmed Fedil by Colonel Parsons, and on the and laige numbers of officers and men are now employed in the 26th- December the army of Ahmed Fedil was finally civil administration of the Sudan. (E Wo ) defeated and dispersed near Koseires. The Khalifa’s army, Political History. reduced to an insignificant number, after several unsuccessful engagements withdrew to the west of the Nile, In the ninth edition of this Encyclopaedia (vol. v. p. 767) where it was attacked, on the 24th November 1899,’ an account is given of the reforms instituted during the after a forced march by Colonel Wingate, and annihilated. Khediviate of Ismail Pasha, but it is justly pointed out The Khalifa himself was killed; while the victor, who had that “the funds required for these public works, as well joined the Egyptian army in 1883 as aide-de-camp to. the as the actual labour, have been remorselessly extorted from first Sirdar, in December 1899 became the fourth Sirdar, a poverty-stricken population, and there is probably no as Major-General Sir F. R. Wingate, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., peasant now existing whose condition is worse than that Ac. of the long-suffering Egyptian fellah.” The writer venThe single Camel Company of 1883 grew by 1901 into six com- tured however, to predict that “future generations will panies. A raid from Dongola into the Oasis of Beris caused the gain at the fearful expense of the present,” and that “a Sirdar to raise three companies of Sudanese drafted from the time is beginning for Egypt.” This prediction, battalions, to which two more companies were added in 1896, better_ one of fellaheen and one composed of Dervishes taken at Dongola! made in 1877, has since been fulfilled; but the better time Six days food for men and camels, 300 rounds for each rifle, and has come in a way and to an extent which no one could three days water for men are carried in marching order. have then foreseen. In 1899 the infantry of the Egyptian army consisted of 20,000 The impoverishment of the fellah had reached in 1875 men, of whom 12,000 were fellaheen and 8000 blacks, divided such a point that the ordinary resources of the country no into battalions of 1000 and 800 men respectively. They are armed with Martini-Henry rifles, and carry into action 130 rounds longer sufficed for the most urgent necessities of per man, 80 being in the pouches and 50 in the bandoliers. In administration ; and the Khedive Ismail, having fo 1901 the infantry, reduced by 2 battalions since the war, num- repeatedly broken faith with his creditors, could the deposition of bered 9 Egyptian and 7 Sudanese battalions. The artillery consists of 4 field batteries and 1 Maxim battery, not raise any more loans on the EuropeanIsmaiL each battery having one British officer and 5 Egyptian, the total market. The taxes were habitually collected comprising 34 officers and 900 men. There is a battalion of 3 many months in advance, and the colossal floating debt companies of garrison artillery, consisting of 12 officers and 370 was increasing rapidly. In these circumstances Ismail men. There are 10 gunboats on the Nile, and a number of unarmed had to realize his remaining assets, and among them sold 176,602 Suez Canal shares to the British Government vessels. The cavalry are mounted on hardy Syrian horses ; there are 5 for £3,976,582 (see Beaconsfield). This comparatively squadrons, one being composed of Sudanese raised after the battle small financial operation brought about the long-delayed of Omdurman, and the remainder of Egyptians. Three squadrons crisis and paved the way for the future prosperity of Egypt, are commanded by British officers, and two by native officers, each squadron having an average strength of 150. The front for it induced the British Government to inquire more careranks carry lance and carbine, and the rear ranks carbine and fully into the financial condition of the country. What is sword. known as the Cave Mission was sent out to Cairo in 1875, The Egyptian soldier, when unfit for duty, had, under the pre- and its report showed that under the existing administraBritish command, been treated in civil hospitals, but there was a civilian doctor paid on Army Estimates, who was supposed to tion national bankruptcy was inevitable. Other commissupervise the conscription, to avoid which large sums were given sions of inquiry followed, and each one brought Ismail more as bribes. An outbreak of cholera in the summer of 1883 empha- under European control. The establishment of the Mixed sized the necessity of British doctors, and Surgeon-Major Rogers Tribunals (Ency. Brit. vol. v. p. 767) had already made
