M0MH6 
I - t 77 > 
THE REAL SOUDAN. 
Fab Away Uv the Nile. By J. G. Millais. 
Longmans. 40s. net. 
The Vast.Sudan. By A. Radclyffe Dug- 
more. Arrowsmith. ‘21s. net. 
How long will it be before we have a 
Soudan classic ? Sir Reginald Wingate's 
“ With Fire and Sword ” is the story of 
a Soudan already ancient history; Slatin 
Pasha treated of the same period; Lord 
| Cromer* devoted but a minor portion of 
his masterly work to the land south of 
Assouan. Mr. Percy Martin some time 
ago gave us a book packed with a vast 
amount of inforfnation, but his method 
savoured too much of index and. the cata¬ 
logue ; Mr. Abel Chapman gave us some¬ 
thing very nearly great in his “ Savage 
Sudan,” but his treatment was too spe¬ 
cialised to. meet our needs. Now we havi- 
“ Far away up the,Nile” and “ The-Vast 
Sudan.” 
To be quite frank, neither book fills the 
gap. In some measure Mr. MjHais/follows 
in the footsteps of Mr. Chapman, and Mr. 
Dugmorc has set out, we imagine, to do 
nothing more than put in readable form 
the main facts of his recent lectures in 
London on “ The Vast Sudan.” 
Mr. Millais went. <to the Soudan for 
sport; Mr. Dugmoro for photography. 
Both„ therefore, had many experiences in 
common. Both received the warm wel¬ 
come that stamps the Soudan official as the 
most' hospitable man in the world ; both 
saw and turned to their respective 
accounts the bird and animal life, of tho 
country ; both give an appropriate cata¬ 
logue* for the naturalist at the end of their 
respective volumes. But above all both 
realise something of the political problems 
of the Soudan. 
Setting these volumes down at the pre¬ 
sent moment leaves one brooding on the 
words that might have been written hy 
these two writers had they put pen to 
paper, but a few months—perhaps weeks 
: —later. That most gallant of our servants 
1 of Empire, Sir Lee Stack, whose personal 
j charm and generous friendship will long 
be a treasured memory of the writer’s, is 
| gone. Egypt has again plunged her knife 
' into the Soudan as surely as she did before 
the British occupation. What, then, is 
our policy to be? Let two'observers new 
to the country give their views*. Thus Mr. 
Dugmore : 
In the Soudan we have done some of the 
finest work in the history of our country, but 
that work will be only of temporary value if 
we forsake the country now, or, indeed, at any 
time until the people, both Negro and Arab, 
are in the position of being able to carry on 
successfully. 
And Mr. Millais: 
The great native tribes of mountain, plain, 
and forest have, after closely studying our 
methods and the type of men sent amongst, 
them to instil law and order, accepted our rule 
—at first, it is true, with some distrust, then 
with, confidence, and now even with love. 
The Soudan classic still remains, as we 
have said, unwritten. A wonderful 
romance of man, animal, law, order, 
Government, human nature is awaiting 
the pen of a combined Burton and Cromer. 
But if the time is not yet, we need have 
no regrets after turning the pages of 
“ Far away up the Nile” and “ The Vast 
Sudan.” Not the least of their uses is 
that they may fall into the hands of some 
potential Little-Englander ! 
