death, and the children are brought up under more favorable
circumstances, for soul and body, than have ever previously obtained
in the entire history of the Sudan. In administration, in education,
in police work, the Sirdar[12] and his lieutenants, great and small,
have performed to perfection a task equally important and difficult.
The Government officials, civil and military, who are responsible for
this task, and the Egyptian and Sudanese who have worked with and
under them, and as directed by them, have a claim upon all civilized
mankind which should be heartily admitted. It would be a crime not to
go on with the work, a work which the inhabitants themselves are
helpless to perform, unless under firm and wise guidance from outside.
I have met people who had some doubt as to whether the Sudan would
pay. Personally, I think it probably will. But I may add that, in my
judgment, this fact does not alter the duty of England to stay there.
It is not worth while belonging to a big nation unless the big nation
is willing when the necessity arises to undertake a big task. I feel
about you in the Sudan just as I felt about us in Panama. When we
acquired the right to build the Panama Canal, and entered on the task,
there were worthy people who came to me and said they wondered whether
it would pay. I always answered that it was one of the great world
works which had to be done; that it was our business as a nation to do
it, if we were ready to make good our claim to be treated as a great
world Power; and that as we were unwilling to abandon the claim, no
American worth his salt ought to hesitate about performing the task. I
feel just the same way about you in the Sudan.

[12] Sir Reginald Wingate, who at the time of this address was
both Sirdar of the Anglo-Egyptian Army and Governor-General of the
Sudan.--L.F.A.

Now as to Egypt. It would not be worth my while to speak to you at
all, nor would it be worth your while to listen, unless on condition
that I say what I deeply feel ought to be said. I speak as an
outsider, but in one way this is an advantage, for I speak without
national prejudice. I would not talk to you about your own internal
affairs here at home; but you are so very busy at home that I am not
sure whether you realize just how things are, in some places at least,
abroad. At any rate, it can do you no harm to hear the view of one who
has actually been on the ground, and has information at first hand; of