On the
cast, Osman Digna pushed the insurrection right up to the shores
of the Red Sea and laid siege to Suakin. Before the year was
over, with the exception of a few isolated and surrounded
garrisons, the Mahdi was absolute lord of a territory equal to
the combined area of Spain, France, and Germany; and his
victorious armies were rapidly closing round Khartoum.
When the news of the Hicks disaster reached Cairo, the Pashas
calmly announced that they would collect another army of 10,000
men, and again attack the Mahdi; but the English Government
understood at last the gravity of the case. They saw that a
crisis was upon them, and that they could no longer escape the
implications of their position in Egypt. What were they to do?
Were they to allow the Egyptians to become more and more deeply
involved in a ruinous, perhaps ultimately a fatal, war with the
Mahdi? And, if not, what steps were they to take?
A small minority of the party then in power in England-- the
Liberal
Party-- were anxious to withdraw from Egypt altogether and at
once.
On the other hand, another and a more influential minority, with
representatives in the Cabinet, were in favour of a more active
intervention in Egyptian affairs-- of the deliberate use of the
power of England to give to Egypt internal stability and external
security; they were ready, if necessary, to take the field
against the Mahdi with English troops.
Pages:
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339