' Arabia, Syria, the whole
Mohammedan world, would be shaken by the Mahdi's advance. 'In
self-defence,' Gordon declared to Mr. Stead, the policy of
evacuation cannot possibly be justified.'
The true policy was obvious. A strong man--Sir Samuel Baker,
perhaps--
must be sent to Khartoum, with a large contingent of Indian and
Turkish
troops and with two millions of money. He would very soon
overpower the
Mahdi, whose forces would 'fall to pieces of themselves'. For in
Gordon's opinion it was 'an entire mistake to regard the Mahdi as
in any sense a religious leader'; he would collapse as soon as he
was face to face with an English general. Then the distant
regions of Darfur and Equatoria could once more be occupied;
their original Sultans could be reinstated; the whole country
would be placed under civilised rule; and the slave-trade would
be finally abolished. These were the views which Gordon publicly
expressed on January 9th and on January 14th; and it certainly
seems strange that on January 10th and on January 14th, Lord
Granville should have proposed, without a word of consultation
with Gordon himself, to send him on a mission which involved, not
the reconquest, but the abandonment of the Sudan; Gordon, indeed,
when he was actually approached by Lord Wolseley, had apparently
agreed to become the agent of a policy which was exactly the
reverse of his own.
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