orce was so completely smashed up
by Osman Digna within a few miles of Suakim that it had little effect
upon the campaign, except to show that Egyptian troops were absolutely
unfit to meet the forces of the Mahdi. If the tide of conquest was to
be rolled back it must be done by British troops. But England might
well ask what claim was there resting on her that she should give
valuable lives to be sacrificed, to say nothing of incurring the cost
of a fresh campaign, simply because the corrupt Egyptian Government was
too weak to rule its own territory?

When once it became clear that Egyptian troops could not hold the
Soudan, our Government rightly decided that the province must be given
up. Unfortunately, there were scattered about in different parts of
that immense territory various Egyptian officials and bodies of troops.
It was calculated that including the women and children their number
must have been about 30,000. We had practically broken up the Egyptian
army, and virtually become the rulers of the country, so we as a nation
had a certain amount of responsibility in the matter. The problem was
how to withdraw that enormous number of human beings from the Soudan
into Egypt. What appeared to be needed far more than troops was a man
with a head on his shoulders, acquainted with the country, familiar
with the people and their habits of thought, and possessing force of
character to stand against the turbulent elements that had to be dealt
with. No sooner were the difficulties of the position recognised in
England than an outcry arose that Gordon ought to be sent to undertake
the herculean task. Mr. Gladstone, in the House of Commons, has given
credit to Sir Charles Wilson as the first to suggest sending Gordon, as
the only man competent to deal with all the difficulties of the
situation. Both Mr. Gladstone and Sir Charles Dilke asserted in public
that the English Cabinet advised the Egyptian Government that Gordon
was the best man to send, but that the Khedive's ministers did not
approve of this step. Sir Henry Gordon, in his biography states that
Sir Evelyn Baring, our representative in Egypt, does not even seem to
have consulted the Egyptian Government, but of his own accord declined
to accept Gordon. It is quite clear that Sir Evelyn Baring and General
Gordon were not the best of friends, for Gordon later on complains: "I
hear very little from Cairo. Baring only telegraphs officially." It
does not, however, much mat