EGYPT. 



EXPOSITION, THE PAN-AMKIUCAN. 213 



dam, and the region of swamps through which the 

 river flows down is not adapted for canalization. 

 The most likely source for an additional supply 

 he finds in Lake Tsana, at the head of the Blue 

 Nile, but this is in Abyssinia, and can not be util- 

 ized without the consent of the Emperor Menelek. 

 The navigation of the Blue Nile would at the 

 same time be improved. The water-supply could 

 be supplemented by utilizing also the water of 

 the upper Nile that is wasted in swamps, either 

 by embanking the Bahr el Gebel or by using the 

 Bahr el Zeraf as an additional channel for the 

 summer supply. If such a work is ever carried 

 out a large part of the Soudan can be irrigated. 

 Meanw r hile the Egyptian Government intends to 

 employ its financial resources in the construction 

 of a railroad between the Nile valley and the Red 

 Sea as an outlet for the commercial products of 

 the Soudan. The sudd obstructing the channels 

 of the Nile affluents, consisting of masses of de- 

 cayed vegetation, has been removed from the Bahr 

 el Gebel, giving a free navigable channel from Re- 

 jaf to Omdurman, a distance of 1,200 miles. Half 

 of the water issuing from the equatorial lakes 

 which might reach Egypt is absorbed by the 

 marshes that extend for a distance of 400 miles 

 from Bor to Lake No. The cutting of the sudd 

 had no effect in increasing the flow. In 1900, 

 as well as in 1899, there was a failure of rains 

 in the upper Nile valley, causing distress, which 

 was aggravated by the ravages of locusts. The 

 main supply of the White Nile in 1900 was fur- 

 nished by the Sobat and to a less extent by the 

 Bahr el Ghazal. 



The development of the Soudan is the task now 

 taken in hand by the Egyptian Government, but 

 this does not preclude some further gradual re- 

 lief of the fiscal burdens placed on the Egyptian 

 taxpayers. 



The opening of the Soudan to commerce has re- 

 vived the gum trade of Kordofan. Cattle and 

 sheep have become plentiful in that province. 

 The country on the Blue Nile about Elifun is well 

 cultivated and populous. Gedarif, in the vicinity 

 of which large quantities of gum are gathered, has 

 30,000 inhabitants. The black soil suitable for 

 cotton is not cultivated here nor at Gallabat, 

 where population and animals are scarce, but the 

 town is recovering and carries on trade in coffee, 

 wax, honey, and rhinoceros hides.. Everywhere in 

 the Soudan whole districts are depopulated as 

 the result of dervish rule, and consequently the 

 soil lacks laborers, and the situation is rendered 

 worse by the confusion in the ownership of land. 

 The administration of the Soudan is likely to en- 

 tail a heavy financial burden on Egypt for many 

 years, as the process of recovery is necessarily 

 slow. The difficulty of providing irrigation is 

 a serious obstacle to the development of agricul- 

 ture. The Government is making energetic efforts 

 to improve the condition of the inhabitants. 

 Great consideration is shown in the collection of 

 taxes, from which land that is not irrigated is 

 quite exempt. The Government has begun tenta- 

 tively to buy the crops raised by the fellaheen 

 with the object of encouraging agriculture. Com- 

 missions have been appointed to regulate and 

 establish titles to real estate in town and coun- 

 try. Continuous possession for five years is held 

 to be sufficient evidence of ownership. The pro- 

 hibition against raising tobacco has been annulled. 

 Disbanded Soudanese battalions have been colo- 

 nized as an experiment on the Blue and White 

 Niles. Tranquillity prevailed throughout the 

 Soudan in 1901, there was a considerable decline 

 in the price of foodstuffs, and other improvements 

 in the condition of the country were noticeable. 



Sir Reginald Wingatc, the sirdar, injected all 

 the provinces of the Soudan in th< first half of 

 1901. When Anglo-Egyptian post.-, w<-r<- estab- 

 lished in the Bahr el Gha/al the (V,n;:o State, 

 which by the convention of 1894 obtained a lease 

 of that province, but did not proceed to occupy it 

 in consideration of French susceptibilities, re- 

 claimed its rights under the lease. The Con^o 

 State leased to Great Britain in exchange the si np 

 of territory between Lake Albert Edward and 

 Lake Tanganyika, which was required for the ex- 

 clusive British route from Cape Town to Cairo, but 

 the British Government, in view of German and 

 French objections to the alienation of Congo ter- 

 ritory, refrained from taking possession. Anglo- 

 Egyptian troops were not only posted in the parts 

 of the Bahr el Ghazal which the Belgians had not 

 occupied, but at Lado, where a Belgian garrison 

 was in possession, the Egyptian Government tak- 

 ing the ground that Egypt after the fall of the 

 dervish Government at Omdurman resumed all 

 her former rights in the Soudan. The Belgian 

 troops were not withdrawn, and the question was 

 discussed diplomatically between the British and 

 the Congo governments. 



The anti-British sentiment still rife in Egypt 

 was manifested in serious riots that occurred in 

 Alexandria early in August. Arabi Pasha, the 

 leader of the military revolt that led to the Brit- 

 ish occupation of Egypt in 1882, was pardoned by 

 the Khedive in May, and returned from his long 

 exile in Ceylon to pass the remainder of his life 

 in his native land. 



EXPOSITION, THE PAN - AMERICAN. 

 This was held in Buffalo, N. Y., from May 1 to 

 Nov. 2, 1901. (For the previous interstate ex- 

 positions, see the list in the Annual Cyclopaedia 

 for 1898, page 249.) 



Organization. Soon after the Cotton States 

 Exposition, held in Atlanta in 1895, the plan of 

 organizing a Pan-American exposition on the 

 Niagara frontier was conceived, to illustrate 

 the progress of civilization in the Western Hemi- 

 sphere during the nineteenth century. In 1897 

 the Pan-American Exposition Company was 

 incorporated, and a site was selected on Cayuga 

 island, near the village of La Salle, where a 

 memorial stake was driven by President McKin- 

 ley, in July, 1897. The war with Spain followed, 

 and the enterprise was postponed; but on Dec. 

 5, 1898, a reorganization of the project, on a 

 larger basis, with a new charter, was urged upon 

 the community by Conrad Diehl, then mayor of 

 Buffalo. A new charter was approved in January, 

 1899, and bills were introduced both in the na- 

 tional and the State Legislature, authorizing ex- 

 hibits on the part of the nation and the State, 

 which were approved, and in March, 1899, the 

 Exposition Company was perfected. 



Management. The incorporators of the ex- 

 position elected a Board of Directors, who in turn 

 elected officers of the company. These were as 

 follow: President, John G. Milburn; Secretary, 

 Edwin Fleming; Treasurer, George L. Williams. 

 The executive officers were: Director-General, Wil- 

 liam I. Buchanan; Commissioner-General and 

 Auditor, John B. Weber; Director of Conces- 

 sions, Frederic W. Taylor; Commander of Po- 

 lice, John Byrne; Medical Director, Roswell 

 Park; Director of Works, Newcomb Carlton; 

 Superintendent of Landscape, Rudolf Ulrich; 

 Superintendent of Electrical Exhibits, George 

 F. Sever; Director of Fine Arts, William A. 

 Coffin; Superintendent of Graphic Arts, Ma- 

 chinery, Transportation Exhibits, and Agricul- 

 tural Implements, Thomas M. Moore; Superin- 

 tendent of Liberal Arts, Selim H. Peabody; Super- 



