THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1895. SLATIN BEY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1204, 29 March 1895, Page 18

THE New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1895. SLATIN BEY.

Just before the rise of the Mahdi's power in Darfur the Governor of that district was Slatin Bey, an Austrian officer who had taken service with the Khedive. Lupton Bey was Governor of the next province to the south (Bahr-el-G-azal), an Englishman once in the service of the P. and O. Company. Next to him in charge of the Equatorial Province further south was Emin Pasha. These three held their own very -well until the defeat of the army of General Hicks. Lupton and Slatin, being the nearest to the Mahdi, bore the brunt of the Mahdi's outbreak. But so long as" the Governor-General could assist with troops, they gave a good account of themselves. Slatin had a good force of regulars—Black Soudanese troops —much ammunition and provisions. He resisted the Mahdi, fought 27 pitched battles, winning 25 of them, and held his province of Darfur well. Lupton had a similar experience, while Emin, being farther off, was not attacked at that time. The destruction of Hicks' army was the death-blow to all three provinces. While Gordon was on his way to take up the Governor-Generalship at Khartoum, the troops of Lupton and Slatin deserted, and nothing was left their commanders but surrender. Emin kept his men together and beat off all attacks, even after Khartoum had fallen, and was eventually—it is matter of recent history rescued by Mr Stanley's expedition, only, as it turned out, to be murdered later, on the banks of the Lualaba or Upper Congo. Lupton and Slatin both surrendered before the fall of Khartoum and the death of Gordon. Each embraced Mahomedanism, was placed under a spiritual adviser, who acted also as spy for the Mahdi, given a Mahomedan name, and the command—nominally, at all events — of a contingent of the Mahdist army. Lupton was very soon thrown into chains, and after the setting up of the Mahdi's power at Omdurman (the new Khartoum) was made to work as a slave in the arsenal until he died. Slatin secured better treatment at the outset for a time, during which he managed to correspond with the Austrian Consul and with General Gordon, who, he feared, thought he had given up his Government too easily.'; He assured Gordon in a very remarkable letter printed with Gordon's Khartoum journals that he had done all that his honour as an Austrian officer had demanded of him; and he offered to come into Khartoum and throw in his lot with Gordon, stipulating that he must have an assurance that the place would be held till the English came, for if captured after desertion of the Mahdi he would be tortured to death. In conclusion he excused his change of religion on the ground that he had not been very well instructed in his youth. Gordon replied declining peremptorily to receive him, as he was practically to all intents and purposes a prisoner on parole, and parole must be kept even with the Mahdi. As a second reason.he pointed out that the escape of Slatin to Khartoum would be followed by

bad consequences to all the.other .Euro? peans in the power of the Mahdi. Having thus disposed of the matter with Slatin, Gordon proceeded to make characteristic entries in his journal. " Poor Slatin !he sadly wants a period of moral quarantine : shall take him with me to the Congo." At the same time he regrets that he has not men like Slatin at the head of the other provinces east of the Nile, not then under the dominion of the Mahdi. From which it may be gathered that Slatin's excuse that he had only surrendered after a prolonged resistance when deserted by his troops after the fall of Hicks had been weighed and found just by the General. That must be of considerable service to Slatin : indeed, has already been, for the first thing that has happened to him after his escape is to be made a Pasha. Before the fall of Khartoum Slatin fell into troubled ways, the Mahdi threw him into chains, as Gordon's journal shows several times when noting reports of spies and deserters who give the news of the Mahdi's camp, and kept him in close confinement. After the fall of Khartoum, and the death of the first Mahdi, the ex-Governors were made to work in chains in the arsenal. There Lupton died. Slatin appears after a time to have been allowed some latitude, for, according to the cable new s, he was able to make no less than thirteen attempts to escape. His last and successful attempt was probably made like that of Father Ohrwalder —whose book on the Soudan is the only authentic authority extant of the story of the fall of Khartoum and the history of the Mahdistic Khalifate —on the back of a swift riding camel. Slatin has come back, as it were, from the grave. He probably possesses more details of the last hours of General Gordon than any man outside the Soudan, and understands more of the Mahdist systems of government and tenure of the Nile country to the Equatorial provinces. The theory is gaining ground every day that the Nile from the remotest sources to the mouth ought to [be under one flag, to secure the safety of the irrigation supply of Egypt it is said. Whatever the reason for it the theory is coming to the front. Naturally Slatin Bey, just escaped, with his old experience and his newtitle of Pasha will come to the front too. We may expect a book of surpassing interest, and perhaps an expedition of considerable value.