Effective measures for the accomplishment of General Gordon’s mission included the possibility and great probability of serious fighting in the interest of a pacific policy, and it is strange if Lord Granville were unable to grasp that fact when he endorsed the Khedive’s Firman.
So far I have advanced only a few of the innumerable proofs of Gordon’s authority to act as he thought fit; as to his capabilities and his judgment it is unnecessary to speak. Of those who subsequently would not accept his judgment, one, Mr. Gladstone, said, “It was our duty, whatever we might feel, to beware of interfering with Gordon’s plans, and before we adopted any scheme that should bear that aspect (i.e. the aspect of interference), to ask whether in his judgment there would or would not be such an interference.” The other, Sir Charles Dilke, said, “He is better able to form a judgment than anybody. He will have, I make no doubt, every support he can need in the prosecution of his mission.”
Personally I do not believe that a single Cabinet Minister doubted Gordon’s authority to act as he thought fit, nor do I believe a single Cabinet Minister doubted either his capabilities or his judgment. It was only when the Government realised how strong that authority was; how significantly Gordon proposed to wield it, and how he meant to call upon his country to support him in what was right, irrespective of party feeling and of prejudiced public opinion, that references were made to “General Gordon’s peculiar views” and to “his disobedience of orders.” I would let the latter remark pass as unworthy of further comment, were it not for the fact that it has become a common phrase among the working classes in the North of England, when they are either speaking of or are spoken to about General Gordon. Now I sincerely trust and believe that the Journals will be read eagerly by the working classes; they cannot occupy their leisure time better than in reading them, and, indeed, in learning much of them by heart. I would say then, to these people, Do not believe that General Gordon was disobedient to his Government. His Government permitted him to accept the Khedive’s Firman, appointing him Governor-General of the Soudan, with full powers, civil and military, and the Khedive desired him to “evacuate the garrisons of the country, and to restore order;” and the way in which this was to be done was left to the discretion of the man who had to do it. I would also ask these people to note particularly that the Khedive did not tell him to evacuate the garrisons of Kartoum and leave the other garrisons in the lurch; did not tell him to sacrifice everything rather than engage in military operations against the Mahdi; did not tell him to identify his interests with those of the people and then to get away as best he could, and to leave the people to their fate. Had the Khedive told him to do this, he would never have accepted the Governor-Generalship of the Soudan; and, when his own Government suggested this method as a way out of difficulties, the substance of his numerous replies was, “Our relative positions do not justify you in giving me such orders. I can only accept them as your wishes; and the duty I owe to myself, as a God-fearing and an honourable man, prevents me being able to comply with them.”
When Gordon telegraphed to Sir E. Baring, “You must see that you could not recall me nor could I possibly obey until the Cairo employés get out from all the places. I have named men to different places, thus involving them with the Mahdi; how could I look the world in the face if I abandoned them and fled? As a gentleman could you advise this course?” he really telegraphed a bitter rebuke to the English Government; and when he added, “It may have been a mistake to send me up, but, having been done, I have no option but to see evacuation through,” he merely pointed out, what the Government already knew, namely, that the position they had allowed him to accept was one over which they had no legal control, unless they announced the annexation of Egypt. I, therefore, again most emphatically repeat, that Gordon in no instance disobeyed his Government, though he frequently had to tell them how utterly unable he was to execute their wishes. The Governor-General of the Soudan had definite orders from the Khedive, whose servant he was, and these orders could not be capsized by the English Government, unless the Khedive were deposed or Egypt were annexed.
I cannot conclude this portion of my subject in a better way than by quoting what the Khedive said to Baron Malortie, after he had appointed Gordon Governor-General of the Soudan. Speaking of his mission, he remarked:—
I could not give a better proof of my intention than by accepting Gordon as Governor-General with full powers to take whatever steps he may judge best for obtaining the end my Government and Her Majesty’s Government have in view. I could not do more than delegate to Gordon my own power and make him irresponsible arbiter of the situation. Whatever he does will be well done, whatever arrangements he will make are accepted in advance, whatever combination he may decide upon will be binding for us; and in thus placing unlimited trust in the Pasha’s judgment I have only made one condition: that he should provide for the safely of the Europeans and the Egyptian civilian element. He is now the supreme master, and my best wishes accompany him on a mission of such gravity and importance, for my heart aches at the thought of the thousands of loyal adherents whom a false step may doom to destruction. I have no doubt that Gordon Pasha will do his best to sacrifice as few as possible; and, should he succeed, with God’s help, in accomplishing the evacuation of Kartoum and the chief ports in the Eastern Soudan, he will be entitled to the everlasting gratitude of my people, who at present tremble that help may come too late. To tell you that he will succeed is more than I or any mortal could prognosticate, for there are tremendous odds against him. But let us hope for the best, and, as far as I and my Government are concerned, he shall find the most loyal and energetic support.[3]
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The points I have already dwelt upon are all-important for the correct interpretation of what Gordon says in his Journals. There are now two other questions, with which I must deal. The first of these is “To what extent were H.M. Government morally bound to support Gordon?” The answer is to be found in the conditions laid down in the Khedive’s Firman, which H.M. Government endorsed. Mr. Gladstone admitted as much in the House of Commons on Feb. 14th, when he said: “The direct actions and direct functions in which General Gordon is immediately connected with this Government are, I think, pretty much absorbed in the greater duties of the large mission he has undertaken under the immediate authority of the Egyptian Government, with the full moral and political responsibility of the British Government.” Therefore we owed the same kind of responsibility to Gordon as it owed to Egypt, moral and political. Gordon shows in his Journals what brought about our responsibility to Egypt. First, we were morally to blame for General Hicks’s defeat, for had we prevented the Fellaheen conscripts being dragged in chains from their homes, and sent up to recruit Hicks’s army, Hicks would not have left Kartoum, and his troops would not have been annihilated. Through this disaster we became morally responsible for the extended influence of the Mahdi, who, previous to crushing a huge army, had merely defeated small detachments of troops far inferior to his own. It was the crushing of Hicks’s force which led the Mahdi to put forth his agents in all parts of the Soudan, and thus to convert a trumpery local rising into a wide-spreading rebellion. So much for our responsibility from a moral point of view. Our political responsibility began with the order to abandon the Soudan (which was unnecessary interference on our part, inasmuch as the Soudan was practically lost), and was followed up by our objection to the despatch of Egyptian or Turkish troops, our sending Gordon, and our operations for the relief of Tokar and Sinkat. Right through we forced the hand of the Khedive. Why did we not go one step further and force him to cancel the Firman by which he appointed Gordon Governor-General of the Soudan? Had we done this, Gordon would have reverted to his original position as reporter to Her Majesty’s Government, or he could have endeavoured to leave Kartoum at once, as his responsibilities towards the people of the Soudan would have ceased. Until we did this we were as responsible to him, morally and politically, as we were to the Egyptian Government. A little decision here might have spared to us Gordon, Colonel Stewart, and Mr. Power; might have prevented the loss of thousands of other lives; might have saved us millions of money.
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