The Great Climbdown

Up to a few weeks ago, the dispute over the Sudan was a textbook example of unprofitable diplomacy. All parties had crawled far out on separate limbs. The British had 1) all but pushed the Egyptians out of the million square miles of Sudan, despite the continuing fiction of a condominium and 2) firmly promised the 8,000,000 Sudanese the right of self-determination. The Egyptians had 1) named King Farouk Sovereign of the Sudan and 2) let it be known that they considered the pro-Independence party in Sudan (the Umma) a collection of dogs and British lickspittles. For the Sudanese, Umma Leader Sayed Abdul Rahman el Mahdi,* the richest man in the Sudan, had threatened a holy war if the Egyptians tried to get back in. The impasse was complete.

At this point, all sides came to realize that they had better scramble down from their perches. The Sudan issue was the main obstacle to cordial British-Egyptian relations, and the sooner it was settled the sooner peace would return to a troubled area.

True to its training, the British Foreign Office pulled the saving maneuver: while London would not renege on its promise of self-determination for the Sudanese, it was O.K. with London if the Sudanese themselves, of their own free will, wanted to negotiate with Egypt.

Soon, a distinguished six-man Umma delegation headed for Cairo. In four formal meetings and nine if tars (sundown breakfasts during the fast month of Ramadan), the two sides narrowed down the issues. Said Egypt's Premier, Hilaly Pasha: if the Sudanese want self-government, they can have it. But first they must acknowledge King Farouk's sovereignty, and only then may they hold a plebiscite. Said the Umma leaders: if the Sudanese want to recognize Farouk's sovereignty, well & good, but first let the Sudanese decide that by a plebiscite. Neither side went out on any limbs. The meetings were good-natured, enlivened by Hilaly's complicated puns in Arabic.

They ended last week with the understanding that old Umma Party Chief Sayed Abdul Rahman would come himself to Cairo to resume the talks. All sides were still far from agreeing, but--as one Sudanese minister explained it--"Our viewpoints were as far apart as Cairo and Khartoum [1,100 miles]; the distance now is only that from Cairo to Aswan [460 miles]." Cairo and London agreed that the chances for a settlement were the best in months.

* Posthumous son of the great Mahdi (messiah) whose desert dervishes laid siege to the undermanned British garrison of Khartoum in 1884, hacked to death its famed commander, General Charles ("Chinese") Gordon. Thirteen years later Kitchener avenged Gordon's death by smashing the dervishes at Omdurman. The Mahdi was already dead, but Kitchener ordered his tomb razed, his bones thrown into the Nile.

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