710
EGYPT
Shendi, on the Nile. The completion of this enterprise would at once change all the elements of the problem. The immense responsibilities involved were most imperfectly understood by the British Government. Egyptian sovereignty in the Sudan dates from 1819, when Mehemet Ali sent a large force into the country, and ultimately established his authority over Sennar and Kordofan. In 1866 Suakin and Massawa were assigned to Egyptian rule by the Sultan, and in 1870 Sir Samuel Baker proceeded up the Nile to the conquest of the Equatorial Provinces, of which General Gordon was appointed Governor-General in 1874. In 1875 Darfur and Harrar were annexed, and in 1877 Gordon became Governor-General of the Sudan, where, with the valuable assistance of Jessi Pasha, he laboured to destroy the slave trade and to establish just government. In August 1879 he returned to Cairo, and was succeeded by Baouf Pasha. Misrule and oppression in every form now again prevailed throughout the Sudan, while the slave traders, exasperated by Gordon’s stern measures, were ready to revolt. The authority of Egypt was represented by scattered garrisons of armed men, badly officered, undisciplined, and largely demoralized. In such conditions a leader only was required to ensure widespread and dangerous rebellion. A leader appeared in the person of Mahommed Ahmed,born in 1848, who had taken up his abode on Abba Island, and, acquiring great reputation for sanctity, had actively fomented insurrection. In August 1881 a small force sent by Raouf Pasha to arrest Mahommed Ahmed was destroyed, and the latter, proclaiming himself the Mahdi, stood forth as the champion of revolt. Thus at the time when the Egyptian army was broken up at Tel-el-Kebir, the Sudan was already in flames. On 7th June 1882, 6000 men under Yusef Pasha, advancing from Eashoda, were nearly annihilated by the Mahdists. Payara and Birket in Kordofan quickly fell, and a few days before the battle of Tel-el-Kebir was fought, the Mahdi, with a large force, was besieging El Obeid. By the close of the year almost the whole of the Sudan south of Khartum was in open rebellion, except the Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Equatorial Provinces, where for a time Lupton Bey and Emin Pasha were able to hold their own. Abd-el-Kader, who had succeeded Raouf, telegraphed to Cairo for 10,000 additional troops, and pointed out that if they were not sent at once four times this number would be required to reestablish the authority of the Government in the Sudan. After gaining some small successes, Abd-el-Kader was superseded by Suliman Niagi on 20th February 1883, and on 26th March Ala-ed-din Pasha was appointed Governor-
[military operations.
General. Meanwhile 5000 men, who had served in the Egyptian army, were collected and forcibly despatched to Khartum vid Suakin. In March 1883 Major-General Hicks, who in January had been appointed by the Khedive Chief of the Staff of the army of the Sudan, found himself at Khartum with nine European Disaster officers and about 10,000 troops of little military Hicks.^1 value. The reconquest of the Sudan having been determined upon, although Sir E. Malet reported that the Egyptian Government could not supply the necessary funds and that there was great risk of failure. General Hicks, who had resigned his post on 23rd July, and had been appointed Commander-in-Chief, started from Khartum on 9th September, with a total force of about 10,000 men, including non-combatants, for Kordofan. On 22nd May Sir E. Malet had informed Sherif Pasha that, although General Hicks finds it convenient to communicate with Lord Dufferin or with me, it must not be supposed that we endorse in any way the contents of his telegrams. . . . Her Majesty’s Government are in no way responsible for his operations in the Sudan, which have been undertaken under the authority of His Highness’s Government. General Hicks was fully aware of the unfitness of his rabble forces for the contemplated task, and on 5th August he telegraphed: “I am convinced it would be best to keep the two rivers and province of Sennar, and wait for Kordofan to settle itself.” Early in November the force from Khartum was caught by the Mahdists short of water at Kashgil, Walker & Cockerell sc. near El Obeid, and was almost totally destroyed, General Hicks, with all his European officers, perishing. Sinister rumours having reached Cairo, Sir E. Baring, who had succeeded Sir E. Malet, telegraphed that “ if General Hicks’s army is destroyed, the Egyptian Government will lose the whole of the Sudan, unless some assistance from the outside is given,” and advised the withdrawal to some post on the Nile. On the following day Lord Granville replied: “We cannot lend English or Indian troops; if consulted, recommend abandonment of the Sudan within certain limits ”; and on the 25th he added that “ Her Majesty’s Government can do nothing in the matter which would throw upon them the responsibilities for operations in the Sudan.” In a despatch of 3rd December Sir E. Baring forcibly argued against British intervention in the affairs of the Sudan, and on 13th December Lord Granville telegraphed that “ Her Majesty’s Government recommend the Ministers of Khedive to come to an early decision to abandon all territory south of Assuan, or, at least, of Wadi Haifa.” On 4th January 1884 Sir E. Baring was directed to insist upon the policy
