[192] The alternative courses were (1), calling in the aid of Turkish troops; (2), the employment of Zebehr Pasha; (3), the opening up of communications between Suakim and Berber after Graham’s victories on the Red Sea littoral; (4), the evacuation of Khartoum in accordance with a scheme whereby Gordon’s colleague, Colonel Stewart, was to take the fugitives down to Berber, while Gordon and a picked body of troops were to retreat up the White Nile in steamers to the Equator.
[193] These persons were in most cases rather incompetent. They were not boatmen or voyageurs at all, but clerks, shopmen, and land-lubbers from the Canadian towns, who had palmed themselves off on Lord Wolseley and his subordinates as experienced Canadian voyageurs.
[194] This was not the only case in which Lord Northbrook had discredited the Administration. It was notorious that Mr. W. H. Smith had shockingly neglected naval ship-building when, in 1880, he handed the Navy over to Lord Northbrook. Lord Northbrook had worked hard to make up arrears, and he had built new ships as fast as he could to enable the British Navy to rank with that of France. But his best efforts to correct Mr. Smith’s negligence failed, and yet in July, 1885, he expressed himself quite satisfied with the Navy. When he was absent in Egypt a violent agitation, demonstrating the feebleness and insufficiency of the Navy, was raised in the Press. Ere the autumn Session ended he admitted that £5,000,000 above the ordinary estimates would be needed to strengthen the Fleet in swift cruisers and torpedo boats.
[195] Loans already secured on these were to merge in the Preference Debt along with bonds for Alexandria indemnities. The interest on it was not to change, but that on the Unified Debt into which Daira Loans were to merge, was to be reduced to 3-1/2 per cent.
[196] When Ismail abdicated under the pressure of France and England it was not made clear that he abandoned all his rights as a private landowner in Egypt. Theoretically the Khedive could not, according to Oriental usage, own any land in his dominions save as head of the State, in which capacity he owned all land. Hence, when he ceased to be Khedive, his private domains reverted to his successor. Hence Lord Granville always rejected Ismail’s claim. But in 1888 Lord Salisbury, through the agency of Mr. Marriott, Judge Advocate-General, commuted all Ismail Pasha’s claims for a lump sum, calculated on the allowances he was bound to make his family, and which he himself might fairly demand to support his position as ex-Khedive. Lord Salisbury’s object was to prevent these claims from being ever made the basis of operations for diplomacy hostile to England.
[197] The dates are curious:—
| 17 | June, 1884. — | Invitations to Egyptian Conference issued. |
| “ | “ | Lord Derby promises to stop the action of the Cape Government in reference to Angra Pequena. |
| 19 | “ | Lord Granville assures Count Münster that he accedes to Bismarck’s wishes on the Fiji dispute. |
| 22 | “ | Lord Granville tells Count Herbert Bismarck that the Cabinet, on the 21st inst., resolved to recognise the German Protectorate over Angra Pequena. |
| 28 | “ | Meeting of the Conference in London. |
[198] Speech in House of Lords, February 26th, 1885.
[199] Speech in the Reichstag, March 2nd, 1885.
[200] More Leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands. From 1862 to 1882. Smith, Elder & Co., 1884.