338 Egypt
dismal swamps of a White Paper Nile to a point from
which a solution can be seen in the distance. A British
Government anxious to reach that point must begin as
the previous chapter suggests, by cutting a way through
these malarial swamps and by clearing the air both for
English and Egyptian. One way to do this would be as
a preliminary to any negotiation to withdraw the British
garrison, to convert the High Commissionership back
into a Consulate-General, and to end the alien authority
of the Financial and Judicial Adviserships. For none of
these has any value as a quid pro quo in a bargain, and
their continuance merely bars the approach to a real re-
settlement.
If this resettlement took the form of Egypt becoming
a self-governing Dominion within the Empire, then the
conflicting claims of Egypt and of the Empire to
sovereignty over the Sudan would be dealt with easily so
far as concerns principle. Though, no doubt, in practice
their adjustment would not be easy and would call for
much care and mutual consideration.
If, however, the present course of events continues,
and Egypt, through our concessions on other reserved
points, becomes a de facto as well as de jure independent
State, then the question of sovereignty over the Sudan
will have to be dealt with by treaty with or without the
help of the League. A reference to the League seems to
offer the best prospect of a satisfactory solution, and in
that case the situation would be very similar to that which
arose between the Empire and the Turkish nation over
Mossul, The solution, we may assume, would also be on
very similar lines. The Mossul settlement was, broadly,
that the League recommended its retention by the British
as mandatory for Irak in the interests of the inhabitants ;
while Turkey was given recognition of rights in the oil