needs of the country and is zealously devoted to its interests.
All that is necessary is to follow his lead and to give him
cordial support and backing. The principle upon which I think it
is wise to act in dealing with far-away possessions is this:
choose your man, change him if you become discontented with him,
but while you keep him, back him up.

* * * * *

I have met people who had some doubt whether the Sudan would pay.
Personally, I think it probably will. But I may add that, in my
judgment, this does not alter the duty of England to stay there.
It is not worth while belonging to a big nation unless the big
nation is willing, when the necessity arises, to undertake a big
task. I feel about you in the Sudan just as I felt about us in
Panama. When we acquired the right to build the Panama Canal, and
entered on the task, there were worthy people who came to me and
said they wondered whether it would pay. I always answered that it
was one of the great world-works that had to be done; that it was
our business as a nation to do it, if we were ready to make good
our claim to be treated as a great World Power; and that as we
were unwilling to abandon the claim, no American worth his salt
ought to hesitate about performing the task. I feel just the same
way about you in the Sudan.

* * * * *

It was with this primary object of establishing order that you
went into Egypt twenty-eight years ago; and the chief and ample
justification for your presence in Egypt was this absolute