Before the final move against the Mahdists in Sudan is on the way, one of our summit-guests, Hiram Stevens Maxim (he hasn‘t been knighted yet!), will demonstrate his newest product in front of British army-officers along the Nile. His machine gun, to be cooled by water, can shoot two thousand times per minute.
According to Wilbur Smith, the demonstration has been ordered by that man who, ten years ago, had experienced personally how a military expedition failed to arrive Khartoum in time to save the head of British war hero Gordon Pascha and with it bodies and lives of European settlers there as well.
Our man was at that time Head of the intelligence service of the desert troupe. Now, he was the elected one to wipe the disgrace. Efforts to destroy the Mahdi had cost Great Britain, according to Wilbur Smith, some thirteen Million Pounds. Frugality is now the catchword for the new effort; ideas are in high demand. Just one million pound is calculated for the new war-budget … plus/minus …
On 12th March 1896, our man gets his order to march up the Nile, to attack the Mahdists ...
Appearance of the new Commander on Wilbur Smith’s paper-stage, address in front of his officers …

¹⁵ „From the twenty-second to the sixteenth parallel of north latitude we are faced with waterless desert. We will go to capture the Nile, but we cannot use the river as a means of access. The cataracts stand in our way. The only route open to us is the railway we will build to carry us overland into battle. We can use the river only in the final stage of our advance.“ He regarded them with his cold misanthropic stare. „There are no mountains to cross; the desert is level and good going. It will not be a matter so much of engineering techniques as of hard work. We will not rely on private contractors. Our own engineers will do the job.“
„What about the Atbara River, sir? At its confluence with the Nile it is almost a thousands yard wide,“ said Colonel Sam Adams.
„I have already called for tenders to supply the components for a bridge to be manufactured in sections that can be taken up on the railway trucks. Another call for tender will soon be going out for the supply of steel-hulled river gunboats. They will be sent up by rail to the clear water above the fifth cataract. There, they will be reassembled and launched.“

CONTROL! ATTENTION:

TUNNEL-CONNECTION BETWEEN TWO POINTS IN HISTORY!

1896 > SUDAN < 2004

More than ten thousand Euro for a good cause have been collected during this year’s Benefit-Ball. After twenty-one years of civil war, a peace-treaty will be signed in December 2004. This will mean great changes for the lives of people. To provide them with information about these changes the collected money will be used to buy radios and to distribute them throughout South Sudan …

I did not grant this! Where did you get this document?

… in Pitman’s shorthand, noted down for the controller, handed down by Herr Dunkler on instruction by Mr. Moon ... and it continues:

… Our annual Benefit-Ball took place on 3rd December under the motto ‚RADIO FOR PEACE‘, sponsored by business-partners BUG, BWG, Pfleiderer and Radio Hamburg at the ‚Abacus Tierparkhotel‘ in Berlin. Patron was the Minister of Economy of the German Federal State of Brandenburg, Herr Ulrich Junghanns.
Due to the growing international character of our enterprises, we were able to welcome this year, apart from representatives of the German railway-industry who participated already in the fourteenth year, many foreign guests. Participants were partners from Scandinavia, Spain, China, Yemen, Kenya and from South Sudan … Guest of honour from South Sudan was the Commissioner for International Cooperation of the SPLM, Herr Dr. Costello Garang Ring.
Since our company has developed close relations with the people of South Sudan, we have decided to dedicate the proceeds of this year’s event to a very special use. After more than twenty years, the civil war between South Sudan and the central government in Khartoum could be ended thanks to the support of the world community; a peace-treaty will be signed this year. People who have known nothing than war for a whole generation have to start their lives anew. Since no infrastructure exists and no means of mass communication, we have decided, together with the private station Radio Hamburg, to install a radio-station in South Sudan. In a first step, radio-receivers were identified which can be operated either with batteries, solar or cranking by hand (cranking for ten seconds = listening for ten minutes). From the proceeds of our annual event such radios will be purchased and distributed in South Sudan. That such radio do function was demonstrated this evening impressively.
Radio Hamburg also donated an FM-transmitter, which was handed over to Herr Dr. Garang during the event. It is intended to have the transmitter installed soon so that the population of the new autonomous region of South Sudan can be informed about developments.
We are glad that we were able to offer with this action an important contribution to the new start in South Sudan, and we wish the people there success with the re-construction of their country.
The railway-project we are charged with will have, next to these humanitarian investments, a high priority …

CONTROL! PICTURE-PROJECTION, PLEASE!

²¹ We see an airstrip in a desert, a turboprop-plane is unloaded, three army-trucks are parked nearby. The caption reads:

„An Antonov-12-transportplane, that, according to ‚amnesty international‘ breaks in 2007 the UN-Embargo to bring military supply to Darfur.“

The colour picture is part of a report of South Africa’s „SUNDAY TRIBUNE“ about Viktor Bout, the „Merchant of Death“...

TUNNEL-REVERSE!

Having become Sirdar of the Egyptian Army in 1892 — with the rank of brigadier-general and then major-general in the British Army — Horatio Herbert Kitchener led in 1896 his British and Egyptian forces up the Nile, building a railway to supply arms and reinforcements, and defeating the Sudanese at the Battle of Omdurman on 2nd September 1898, near Khartoum. After that victory, the remains of the Mahdi were exhumed and scattered. The remaining Mahdists escaped further to the South, where they, on 24th November 1899, were beaten definitely in the battle of Umm Diwaykarat in the province of Kordofan.
The re-conquered land was not returned to Egypt but became on 19th January of the following year a British condominium with Kitchener as first Governor General. He was created Baron Kitchener, of Khartoum and of Aspall in the County of Suffolk, on 31 October 1898, as a victory title commemorating his successes.
In 1899, Kitchener was presented with a small island in the Nile at Aswan in gratitude for his services; the island was renamed Kitchener's Island in his honour. Since this name bore colonial connotation it is nowadays known as ‚Geziret el-Nabatat‘, which means ‚Island of Plants‘.




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