(10) Gordon telegraphed: “The combination of Zubair and myself is an absolute necessity for success. To do any good we must be together, and that without delay;” and he supplemented this by another telegram, saying: “Believe me, I am right; and do not delay.” The combination was not permitted.
(11) Sir Evelyn Baring telegraphed to Lord Granville that General Gordon had on several occasions pressed for 200 British troops to be sent to Wady Halfa, but that he (Baring) did not think it desirable to comply with the request.
(12) Gordon desired a British diversion at Berber, but Sir Evelyn Baring replied that there was no intention to send an English force to Berber.
(13) Gordon, foiled on every point, telegraphed a graceful adieu to Her Majesty’s Government. Then came the fall of Berber, upon which Sir Evelyn Baring at once telegraphed to Lord Granville that it had now become of the utmost importance not only to open the road between Suakin and Berber, but “to come to terms with the tribes between Berber and Kartoum”; and Lord Granville telegraphed to Sir E. Baring that “General Gordon had several times suggested a movement on Wady Halfa, which might support him by threatening an advance on Dongola, and, under the present circumstances at Berber, this might be found advantageous.”!!
After this, may we not well echo Gordon’s sentiments, “What a farce if it did not deal with men’s lives”? If Gordon, instead of being thwarted, had only been not supported, how different might have been the result of his mission to the Soudan! Indeed, one may say how different would have been the result! for Gordon has practically said this, and he was a competent and a reliable judge. If England and Egypt had only said, “We will give you no help at all; do what you can with the material you have about you, and do not refer to us until you have succeeded, or until you have failed,” I confidently believe Gordon would have at least relieved the beleaguered garrisons of the Soudan, and would have sent down all who wished to leave the country. His weakness was that of trustfulness—the besetting weakness of an honourable man: it had stood him in good stead through his campaigns in China, and through his previous operations in the Soudan; through terrible sufferings which had often made him wish for death. Then he trusted enemies, and they always enabled him to save life. Now he trusted friends, and they only enabled him to die.
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“The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.”
Gordon tells us plainly in his Journals how great is the evil done by the policy of Her Majesty’s Government, and for how long that evil will live when the Government is dead. Is it not possible to avert something of what is about to happen? Her Majesty’s Government are, I believe, beginning to realise how thoroughly correct Gordon was in his views, and how mistaken they were in not following his advice at the time he gave it. At all events after he was dead they expressed their intention of doing much he recommended while he lived. They have been always very late: too late to save Gordon’s life, and too late to save the lives of many thousands. May they not be yet in time to prevent some of the evil that must live after them? I think Gordon tells them in his Journals they may, and I think he also tells them how. It is impossible to read carefully what he says without feeling that he did not expect to live long, and that he had a distinct presentiment he would die at Kartoum. At all events there is a strong undercurrent of this presentiment all through, and it even rises to the surface every now and then when he appears to be taking a hopeful and almost a cheerful view of the situation. At times it carries all before it, as for example when he emphasises the possibility of the fall of Kartoum under the nose of the expedition, and again in the words with which he concludes his sixth and last volume; but then, on the other hand, it is often quite out of sight, especially at such times as he is discussing his position as Governor-General, and turning over in his mind the expediency of appointing Lord Wolseley or Sir Evelyn Baring as his successor. But, whether on the surface or deep down, I think it is always there, and I feel sure that some of his numerous efforts at a solution of the Soudan problem were intended as final instructions for Her Majesty’s Government, to be read after his death or after the fall of Kartoum. The days of prophecy are gone, and I do not at all wish to place Gordon in the light of the ancient orthodox and professional seer, but in considering his career one cannot avoid being struck by the remarkable way in which the lost gift of prophecy has been replaced by the power of combining knowledge with judgment. It would be well if Her Majesty’s Government would bear this in mind, and lay down a distinct line of policy and action with regard to the Soudan, which should be based upon what Gordon recommends. The recall of the troops from the Soudan may have been necessary to meet the exigencies of the moment, or it may not; but it is a pity it did not precede Lord Wolseley’s letter to Cassim el Mousse Pasha:—
We mean to destroy the power of Mohammed Achmet at Kartoum, no matter how long it may take us to do so; you know Gordon Pasha’s countrymen are not likely to turn back from any enterprise they have begun until it has been fully accomplished. When that happy event takes place I hope to be able to establish you amongst your own people, and that you and all others will realise that the English nation does not forget those who serve it faithfully.[4]