Egypt and the Sudan 331
experiment brought financial support from the British
Government for irrigation of the Gezireh, and Lord
Kitchener got a guaranteed loan of £3,000,000, which
by 1924 had been increased to £24,000,000. In the
British Parliamentary debate on the last loan (February,
1924), which was conducted by a Labour Government,
considerable attention was paid to the conditions under
which Sudanese cotton was being grown by British
syndicates, and to the relations between British capital-
ists and Sudanese cultivators. The official information
obtained on these points (White Paper, Sudan I., 1924)
only concerns Egypt in so far as it shows that the condi-
tions q£ cotton cultivation in the Sudan do not constitute
an unfair competition with Egyptian cultivation. The
cotton-growing enterprises in the Gezireh and Kassala
are therein shown to be an interesting experiment in the
nationalisation of land (Ordinance of 1921), in develop-
ment by capitalist syndicates (Empire Cotton-Growing
Association, Sudan Cotton, etc.), and in cultivation by
metayer tenants under the supervision and with the
support of both Government and Syndicate. The British
Government has therein given no greater help to
Sudanese cotton-growers than the Egyptian Govern-
ment could give to its own cultivators. In so far as the
Sudanese are producing better results, owing to more
scientific supervision, better centralised control, and
greater command of capital, this represents a whole-
some competition that will be beneficial to Egypt by
bringing about improvements in its own output. There
is still time for Egypt to take steps to raise its own
standard* For if the Sudan now surpasses it in quality,
in quantity it only supplies the equivalent of one per
cent, of the Egyptian export. This percentage will,
however, increase rapidly as the Sudanese irrigation