Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:52:07.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Development of the Governor-Generalship of the Sudan, 1899–1934

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

M. W. Daly
Affiliation:
School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham

Extract

Following the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan, British unwillingness either to annex the territory or to allow its reincorporation with Egypt was given expression in the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1899, under the terms of which Britain and Egypt were to rule jointly. But the ' Condominium Agreement' was in reality a device by which Britain managed and Egypt paid for the Sudan's administration. The central figure in that administration was the Governor-General, who, although formally appointed by the ruler of Egypt, was the nominee of the British government.

The development of the Governor-Generalship from its inception until the resignation of Sir John Maffey in 1934 owed less to the formal arrangements set down in the Condominium Agreement than it did to relations between the Sudan Government and successive British representatives in Cairo, and to changes in the Governor-General's own position within the Sudan Government. He remained pre-eminent throughout the period under review, but by 1934 his relative independence of Cairo was balanced by the power, within the Sudan Government, of a Council of senior officials.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Cromer to Salisbury, 10 Nov. 1898, Public Record Office, London, Foreign Office (P.O.) 78/4957.

2 Draft Convention, encl. in Cromer to Salisbury, 10 Nov. 1898, P.O. 78/4957.

3 Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 19 Jan. 1899. The Agreement is printed as an appendix in Abd Al-Rahim, Muddathir, Imperialism and Nationalism in the Sudan (Oxford, 1969), 233235.Google Scholar

4 Salisbury to Cromer, 9 Dec. 1898, Hatfield House MSS, 3M/A113/85.

5 Cromer to Lansdowne, 9 Feb. 1902, P.O. 800/123.

6 Cromer to Salisbury, 10 Nov. 1898, P.O. 78/4957.

7 Kitchener, memorandum, n.d., P.O. 78/4957.

8 Salisbury to Cromer, 9 Dec. 1898, Hatfield House MSS, 3M/A113/85.

9 Palmer to Kitchener, n.d. [10 April 1897], Sudan Archive, University of Durham [SAD] 266/1/1.

10 Kitchener, ‘Memorandum presented to Lord Cromer on the 10th April 1897’, SAD 266/1/1.

11 Warburg, Gabriel, The Sudan under Wingate (London, 1971), 1314.Google Scholar

12 Cromer to Salisbury, 15 Dec. 1898, Hatfield House MSS, 3M/A111/76.

13 Warburg, , Sudan, 1314.Google Scholar

14 Sanderson, G. N., Introduction to Yusuf Bedri and Peter Hogg (trans, and eds.), The Memoirs of Babikr Bedri, vol. 2 (London, 1980), 1314.Google Scholar

15 Cromer to Lansdowne, 26 May 1901, P.O. 78/5155.

16 ‘Financial Regulations to be observed by the Soudan Government’, encl. in Cromer to Lansdowne, 26 May 1901, P.O. 78/5155.

17 Sanderson, G. N. has called the financial secretary's authority ‘co-ordinate with, rather than subordinate to, the Governor-General…’, Memoirs, 14.Google Scholar

18 See, e.g., Wingate to Corbett, 10 April 1905, SAD 276/4. There are many expressions of hostility towards Bernard in Wingate's personal correspondence.

19 Wingate to Stack, 3 April 1908, SAD 284/13.

20 Cromer to Kitchener, 19 Jan. 1899, Kitchener papers, Public Record Office, London, P.R.O. 30/57/14.

21 Cromer to Harrington, 28 Feb. 1900, Hatfield House MSS, 3M/A112/97.

22 Crorner, ‘Soudan Legislation’, 20 April 1905, P.O. 78/5430. Cromer went on to admit that he ‘had never had occasion to consult the Secretary of State [for foreign affairs] before the issue of any ordinance, as no legislation has been undertaken of sufficient importance to necessitate the adoption of this course’.

23 Cromer to Wingate, 25 Jan. 1904, P.O. 633/8/390.

24 Wingate to Cromer, 27 April 1905, SAD 276/4.

25 Cromer to Grey, 19 April 1907, P.O. 633/13/2/77.

26 Butler Diary, quoted in Warburg, , Sudan, 10.Google Scholar

27 Cromer to Wingate, 20 June 1901, SAD 271/7. This plan was revealed to Cromer by Bernard.

28 Cromer to Wingate, 1 Aug. 1901, SAD 271/1.

29 J. K. Watson to Wingate, 15 July 1901, SAD 271/7.

30 Wingate to Stamfordham, 30 Aug. 1913, SAD 187/2/1.

31 Warburg, Sudan, 2223.Google Scholar See Hill, Richard, Slatin Pasha (London, 1965), 108109.Google Scholar

32 Sanderson, , Memoirs, 29.Google Scholar

33 Wingate to Kitchener, 4 Sept. 1913, P.R.O. 30/57/44.

34 Warburg, , Sudan, 7475.Google Scholar

35 Phipps to Wingate, 7 June 1908, SAD 282/6.

36 Wingate to Stack, 15 Dec. 1908, SAD 284/13.

37 Wingate to Phipps, 16 April 1911, SAD 300/4/2.

38 Wingate to Phipps, 5 April 1913, SAD 300/4/2. Slatin, who never feared to express an opinion, complained to Wingate in 1913 about a lack of consultation: ‘As you have done away with the Selection board I wish to know if you have also done away with your advisers, i.e. Head[s] of Depart. as consulating officals...’ (Slatin to Wingate, 21 March 1913, SAD 185/3/1).

39 Gorst, autobiographical notes, entry for 1900, Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford.

40 Ibid., entry for 1905.

41 See Warburg, , Sudan, 33.Google Scholar

42 The Governor-General's Council Ordinance, 1910, has been published in Abd Al-Rahim, Muddathir, Imperialism, 241243.Google Scholar

43 Gorst to Wingate, 13 Jan. 1910, encl. in Gorst to Grey, 28 Feb. 1910, P.O. 371/890.

44 Wingate told Stack that ‘the shadow of Denshawai is badly over the present Government and I think their decision very unfortunate for the future of this country - but as we are all “servants” and not “masters” we must obey and look pleasant and keep our mouths shut…’ (Wingate to Stack, 31 May 1908, SAD 284/13.)

45 Wingate to Palmer, 14 Dec. 1911, SAD 299.

46 Wingate to Kitchener, 26 Oct. 1911, SAD 301/4.

47 Wingate to Kitchener, 20 Jan. 1913, SAD 185/1/2.

48 N. Barton to Wingate, 30 Jan. 1913, SAD 185/1/2.

49 Wingate to Clayton, 20 Dec. 1913, SAD 188/3/1.

50 Wingate to Palmer, 12 April 1912, SAD 181/2.

51 See Warburg, , Sudan, 3942.Google Scholar

52 See Wingate to MacMahon, 2 June 1915, P.R.O. 30/57 Warburg, , Sudan, 4445.Google Scholar

53 See Daly, M. W., British Administration and the Northern Sudan, 1917–1924 (Leiden, 1980), 58.Google Scholar

54 Ibid. 8–10.

55 Governor-General's council minute book, 11 Nov. 1919. The minute books were consulted at the Library of the Sudan Cultural Counsellor's Office, London.

56 Ibid., 15 Nov. 1919.

57 Daly, , British Administration, 710.Google Scholar

58 Residency minute, 24 Oct. 1923, P.O. 141/579/540.

59 Residency minute by Wiggin, 22 Sept. 1924, P.O. 141/777/2426.

60 Allenby to Stack, 24 Jan. 1922, P.O. 371/7768.

61 Furness to Selby, 27 Sept. 1924, P.O. 800/218.

62 M. Amos to Wiggin, 7 Nov. 1924, P.O. 141/777/2426.

63 Mervyn Herbert, ‘Succession to Lord Allenby’, 2 April 1925, P.O. 371/10908.

64 Minute by Chamberlain to ibid.

65 Archerto Allenby, 27 April 1925, encl. in Allenby to Chamberlain, 9 May 1925, P.O. 371/10880.

66 Ibid.

67 Archer to Selby, 3 April 1925, P.O. 371/10880. Sterry and Lyall were due to retire. The Foreign Secretary, Chamberlain, minuted to this letter that he was ‘really anxious about the weakness of his [Archer's] Council. It may be necessary to hasten changes in order to strengthen it.’

68 Lloyd to Chamberlain, 18 March 1926, P.O. 371/11609; P.O. minute by Murray, n.d., P.O. 371/11609.

69 See Daly, M. W., ‘A note on the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Archer as governor-general of the Sudan’, Sudan Notes and Records, LVIII (1977), 234237.Google Scholar

70 Archer, G., Personal and Historical Memoirs of an East African Administrator (Edinburgh and London, 1963), 247.Google Scholar

71 Quoted in Lloyd to Chamberlain, 10 April 1926, P.O. 371/11612.

72 Lloyd to Chamberlain, 10 April 1926, P.O. 371/11612.

73 See Sanderson, , Memoirs, 2122.Google Scholar

74 Lloyd to Henderson, 19 June 1929, P.O. 141/635/18821. See also Lloyd to Maffey, 27 March 1929, P.O. 141/635/18821.

75 R. Lindsay to Loraine, 20 Nov. 1929, P.O. 371/13846.

76 Minute by Murray, 8 Oct. 1929, P.O. 371/13846.

77 Loraine to Murray, 1 Nov. 1929, P.O. 371/13849. See also Loraine to Henderson, 12 March 1930, P.O. 371/14608.

78 Minute by Murray for Loraine, 19 May 1930, P.O. 371/14614.

79 Minute by Loraine, 20 May 1930, P.O. 371/14614.

80 Maffey to Loraine, 23 Feb. 1931, P.O. 141/721/97. (Italics added.)

81 Minute by Loraine, 25 Feb. 1931, P.O. 141/721/97.

82 Loraine to Maffey, 28 Feb. 1931, P.O. 141/721/97.

83 Maffey to Loraine, 3 March 1931, P.O. 141/721/97.

84 Loraine to Maffey, 9 April 1931, P.O. 371/15424.

85 Minute by Vansittart to ibid.

86 Loraine to Vansittart, 17 April 1931, P.O. 371/15424.

87 Minute by Murray, 21 April 1931, to ibid.