The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1885

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 5477, 7 February 1885, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1885

Tor the muse that laoks assistance, For the wrong that needs roalstanoi, For the future In the distance, And tba good that we can do.

Latest information regarding the fall of Khartoum states that two thousand of General Gordons followers have been massacred and the palace completely gutted by the ruthless followers of the Mahdi. This news, though not officially conveyed, is probably true, if indeed, the actual slaughter docs not prove to be more serious. Of Gordon himself we are still without any tidings, though it is in him that the chief interest naturally centres. The excitement and indigna tion aroused in England by the failure of the expedition to rescue General Gordon are stated to be unprecedented, and from the Continent of Kuropc there also come expressions of sympathetic regret at the fate of the gallant defender of Khartoum. A Cabinet Council to resolve upon the necessary measures to be taken was held at London yesterday; and the acuto nature of the crisis which has arisen is shown by the fact of Consols going down one-half per cent, on receipt of the news that Khartoum had fallen. As is pointed out, with significant unanimity, by the London press, the success achieved by the Mahdi's followers in the capture of Khartoum will force upon the British expedition much more extensive aggressions than would have been necessary for the achievement of the objects for which it originally set out. General Wolseley's instructions have been published in an Imperial Blue Book, and they show 'v"1 *he Cabinet had never deviated from their cietermiiumui. ~„ „! j^ n the Soudan. The document states: —

Tho primary objoct of tho expedition up tho Valloy of tho Nile is to bring away Goneral Gordon and Colonel Stewart from Khartoum. When that objoct lias been secured, no further offensive operations of any kind are to bo undertaken. Although you are not precluded from advancing as far as Khartoum, should you consider such a step essential to insure tho safe rotroat of Genoral Gordon and Colonel Stewart, you should bear in mind that Her Majosty's Government ia desirous to limit tho sphere of your military operations as much as possible. They rely on you, therefore, not to advance further southward than is absolutely necessary in order to attain tho primary object of the expedition. You will endeavour to placo yourself in communication with Genoral Gordon and Colonel Stewart as toon ns possible. You are aware that the policy of Her Majesty's Government is that Egyptian rulo in tho Soudan should cease. The negotiations with tho tribes for endeavouring to secure tho safe retroat of tho garrison of Kassala may most conveniently bo treated from Suakim and Massowah. You need not, therefore, take any stops in connection with this branch of the subject. Tho position of the garrisons in Darfour, the BahrolGazeUe, and equatorial provinces renders it impossible that you should take any action which would facilitate their retreat without extending your operations far boyond tho sphoro wkich her Majesty's Govornmunt is prepared to sanction. As regards tho Sennaar garrieon, Her Majesty's Government is not prepared to sanction tho despatch of an expedition of British troops upthoHluoNilein order toensure its rotroat. From tho la^t telegrams recoived from Genoral Gordon there h» reason to liopo that ho has already taken stops to withdraw tho Egyptian portion of the Sennaar garrison. You will use your best endeavours to insure the safe retroat of tho Egyptian troops which constitute the Khartoum garrison, and of such of the civil employes of Khartoum, togothor with tboir families, as may wish to return to Etjypt.

If the garrison had been found in possession, therefore, the General's work would soon have been done, and the Prophet, without striking a blow, would have had the pleasure of seeing his arch enemy, who has been raiding his followers' cattle and blowing up the faithful with dynamite, quietly withdrawn. The English Cabinet were not wholly indifferent to the future government of the Soudan. General Wolscley was authorised to ofl'er "a reasonable subsidy to any chief or number of chiefs who would be sufficiently powerful to maintain order along the Valley of the Nile from Wady Haifa to Khartoum, and who would agree to the following conditions:—(i) To remain at peace with Egypt, and to repress any raids on Egyptian territory ; (2) to encourage trade with Egypt; (3) to prevent and discourage by all possible means any expeditions ior the sale of and capture of slaves." But as the offer was accompanied by a plain intimation that the ruler chosen would have to depend entirely on his own strength, it is extremely doubtful whether any of the weak chiefs could have resisted the Mahdi even if they were willing to take the subsidy and make the attempt. The wisdom of the Government in liberating Egyptian finance of the incubus of this worthless territory, which has been a perpetual drain and source of trouble, is not questioned by any but fanatical opponents of the Gladstone Government. To undertake the establishment, at the bayonet's point, of settled government over these wild desert tribes is a proposal so wildly Quixotic that even General Gordon had condemned it; and no one among the many able men, civil and military, who have been engaged as advisers of the Government in Egypt has recommended any other course. The exultation resulting from the victoiy at Khartoum must, however, be checked by a salutary lesson to the followers of the Prophet, and as a measure of protection to Suakim and the Red Sea littoral, along which order will have to be maintained at all hazards. Lamentable and brutal as the work is, therefore, some hundreds more of these poor wretches will have to be butchered in order to give them a taste of AngloSaxon civilisation and the blessings of Christianity. And then they may be left to their own devices —to prey upon each other and indulge to their hearts' content in the sport of slave-hunting, for which the country has ever been notorious.