If the Mahdi has got the Bahr Gazelle, and we evacuate the Soudan in his favour, the Anti-Slavery Society may as well close their office as to the suppression of the slave-trade in these parts, especially if we leave him the steamers.[161]
Special Commission, House of Lords.... under examination, Q. 2389. Did your Lordship know, when in Cairo, that the Fellaheen were being dragged in chains, from their houses, to go and fight the Mahdi, under Hicks, and what steps did you take to prevent it?[162] Did you inform Her Majesty’s Government of the facts, and what was their answer?
The Mahdi has moved his ferry higher up river since our steamers went up this morning.
It is a great question of doubt to me, if Public Officials ought to so sink their personality, as to allow themselves to overlook facts, which must strike them, as being not only evil, but also detrimental to our national interests, merely because such facts are likely to be disagreeable to our Government in requiring them to decide on difficult questions. ... did know of this forced conscription, and so did.... Did they not see that, to allow such conscripts to go up to the Soudan, was not only cruel, but also politically unwise, for it could not be expected that they would have any heart in the matter? If they had stopped it, Hicks would have never left Kartoum, and his army would not have been annihilated; for it is the defeat of Hicks which gave the Mahdi his great prestige. He had annihilated detachments before that: after that he had crushed a huge army. See what it has led to! There are times when men like ... ought to obey, and there are times when they ought to disobey or else resign. Now, if ... had only hinted his resignation, the Governments were so placed as to be obliged to listen to him. I have a strong suspicion ... did know how to act. It was ... and a wish to be agreeable to Her Majesty’s Government which prevented him acting according to his own ideas. Sometimes it is the height of unkindness to be too kind and amiable, and this is one of those cases. History may be misty about it (will not know the thimble the pea is under, for the cards are well shuffled), but there is no doubt that ... had the destinies of Egypt and of the Soudan in his hands, far more than Her Majesty’s Government, and he did not succeed. His amiability did for him. It is not insubordinate to resign, if you do not agree to a policy, or feel you cannot carry it out with a whole heart. In military affairs it is different; one is ordered to go here and there, and one obeys (even if one thinks it is unwise, having represented it), but in Diplomacy there is no such call, and certainly there was none in the case of ... who is only an amateur in the Foreign Office Service, an outsider. Had ... when he came to Egypt cut down the rate of interest by a swoop of his pen to 3½ per cent., who would have said a word; but now it is the difficulty. There would have been a fearful howl from the bondholders, but that would have been all. He dismissed the Control (under the cover of Towfik), and could have reduced the interest, and he would have gained the sympathy of all the people. Hicks (who, by the way, never wanted to go to the Soudan) would have held his own at Kartoum, and have worn out the Mahdi, and we would have had none of this late work. I am afraid to say what numbers have been killed through this present policy, certainly some 80,000; and it is not yet over. For my part, I hope they will all run away. We have in a most effectual way restored the slave-trade and slave-hunting, for Her Majesty’s Government cannot keep the Soudan, and never will Egypt be able to govern it. The only thing to be done, is to give it to the Sultan. What an end to diplomacy of Her Majesty’s Government: and it was so easy when I left in January, 1880, to have settled it quietly, giving up Kordofan, Darfur, and Bahr Gazelle, and Equator, with decency and quiet.
I declare I do not see how we will get out of it (the Soudan) even now; allow that you come to Kartoum, that you drive off the Arabs, open the road to Sennaar. What are you going to do? You will say, “Take out those who wish to leave.” Well, you begin with Sennaar, and of course will have to fight all the way down. It will take three months. During those three months, how are you to feed Kartoum? for the moment you leave Sennaar you leave your granary. You get to Kartoum, you are face to face with 30,000 people who will not leave, and who are hedging with the Mahdi; and with 3000 Shaggyeh, all armed. You fight your way to Berber; another three months, you have no food at Berber; then it will need another two months to get to Dongola, which (seeing your policy) will be hostile. It is indeed a terrible problem, and I wish I could see my way out of it.
Then you come into the hot months, and low Nile. This time next year will not see you out of the Soudan, with decency. Of course you can go back now, but what was the use of coming? I will not allow that you came for me. You came for the garrisons of the Soudan. Now, by the Turkish arrangement, if you act promptly, you can get away quietly in January, 1885. It will not cost anything like what it will cost you to keep your troops here for a year, as I fear you must do if you persevere in trying a “rapid retreat.”
I can have no object in this advice. I want to get out of the affair, but with decency. I regret the necessity of an expedition, but if once you come to Berber, and communicate with Kartoum, if you stick to the “rapid retreat.” you will not be able to accomplish it, and you are in for a year’s stay. While, on the other hand, the giving of country to Turks enables you to get away with credit. Let Her Majesty’s Government find excuses for it, it will not be difficult for them. Put yourself in my position if you say “rapid retreat, and leave Sennaar to its fate.” I will say “No, I would sooner die first,” and will resign my commission, for I could not do it. If you say, “Then you are no longer Governor-General,” then I am all right, and all the responsibility is on you (for I could not be supposed, if you turn me out of Governor-General, to be obliged to aid such a movement, which I think is disgraceful). You will then be face to face with the people. I do not say but that Abdel Kader might not aid in the “rapid retreat” better than I could, even if I agreed to it (of this you can judge for yourself, at any rate I shall be out of it, and of my engagement to the people).
It may be that all this writing is unnecessary, and that you have other views, but it is as well you know my opinions. I am secure against any loss, by the King of the Belgians, if I leave H.M.S., therefore I am, so to say, free of H.M.S. If you turn me out of Governor-General I am relieved from all responsibility, as to your action in Soudan, towards the people. I do not think I am insubordinate in this matter, nor unreasonable. I do not say I would not give all my services in a subordinate position to aid you, but it would be against my grain and be very distasteful, and must not be in position of Governor-General, that must be a sine quâ non, and it must be known that I disapprove of the “rapid retreat.”[163] I would not say this if I was not convinced that the “rapid retreat” is an operation of such difficulty as to make every Englishman akin, and bound to aid one another. If I was Lord Wolseley I would make Her Majesty’s Government send the Turks here.
I do not advocate the keeping of the Soudan by us, it is a useless possession, and we could not govern it, neither can Egypt (after the late events). I am only discussing how to get out of it in honour and in the cheapest way (we must remember we caused its troubles), and that way is, either by some sort of provisional Government under Zubair, or by giving it to the Turks; it is simply a question of getting out of it with decency. Zubair would square the Shaggyeh and townspeople and arrange with the Mahdi, and you could get away. He might hold his own if you gave the Mahdi a good defeat ere you left; at any rate it is only by Zubair or the Turks you will get out of the Soudan before November 1885!!!!!
The Turks are the best solution, though most expensive. They would keep the Soudan: give them £2,000,000. The next best is Zubair with £500,000, and £100,000 a year for two years; he will keep the Soudan for a time. (In both cases slave trade will flourish), thus you will be quiet in Egypt, and will be able to retreat to Egypt in January, 1885. If you do not do this, then be prepared for a deal of worry and danger, and your campaign will be entirely unprofitable and devoid of prestige,[164] for the day after you leave Kartoum the Mahdi will walk in and say he drove you out, which is not pleasant in India or elsewhere.