New-York tribune., 1884-03-23

CQRnQN IN Tile SO IDAN.


second victory, awaiting instructionssfrom Lon
don. The Ministers in therturn have been cA
Meeting every day General GOrdon's advice re-
specting future movements i'll the Soudan. a
fortnight had elapsed since ollect news ha'
been received from khartOum, when yesterday
the silence was broken. General Gordon Is no
longer making war III high sounding proclama-
tions He is conducting an active campaign, ana
when the last dispatch left his camp he was IN
tending to attack the main body of hostile ma
tiyes who were threatening the safety OF the
city. His position does not appear to be crlticai,
since his communications with the grananes IN
the South have not been interrupted and the
force confronting him does not exceed O,OOO men.
The expedition sent for the relief of llalfaya
seems to have been ingeniously planned ana
successfully carried out III General Gordon
has taken the field he viii not give the enemy
time to mass great force against HIM Ills
wonderful campaign in China was a series OF
rapid strokes and original expedients, and If he
now has at his command force upon whose
fidelity he can depend he may give the world
another exhibition of his military genius. lie Is
not in a situation to advise the Liberal Ministry
to abandon military operations IN the Soudah'
He will undoubtedly welcome any dem0hstra-
ton from Suakim which will serve to intimidate
the rebelous Soudanese.
General Gordon, if victorious at Khartoum,
may be able to extrcate the Liberal Govern
ment from their present embarrassments. lie
was sent ND the Nile to make arrangements for
the evacuation of the SOudan. Upon his arrival
he advised the Government to appoint Zobehr
rs his successor. and in this way TO enable him
to retire with the garrison. This proposal has
startled the Liberal Ministry, but in reality 1t
was the logical consequences OF their own
policy. In ordering the evacuation OF the Sou
dan. they had surrendered it to the slave
traders and cut il oil from European commerce.
There was snoinconsistency, no therefore, in General
Gordon's recommending the nomination OF the
| arch slave trader of the SOudan as Sultan OF
Khartoum. If he had been asked to carry out
his own and not the Governments programme,
| he would have taken measures for the per
manent occupation of Khartoum and for the
construction of railway from Suakim to the
Nile-a point which General Meigs an authority
| on military railways, very ably discusses III an
other column Of this issue. 1t is not probable that
| the Government will be willing to incur the
odum of letting loose such tiger as Zobehr III
| the heart of the Soudau. They will shrink IRON
| the responsibility of reOrganizing the infamous
slave traffic and the only alternative they Will
| have will be to retain Khartoum, with General
| Gordon as its absolute monarch.
The phrase Sarawak the SOudan has been
| invented by The Pail Mall Gazette, and the plan
of operations advocated is similar to that fol
lowed by the Raj abs of that principality. In
| 1888 Sir James Brooke arriving in Borneo,
| found that the natives had revolted against the
Sultan of Brunei on account of oppression and
| slave raids. He mediated between the rebels
| and their sovereign, obtained free grant OF
| sixty miles of coast line, and with the consent
of the natives became the absolute sovereign OF
Sarawak For forty six years region as large
as Scotland has been wisely and beneiicially
governed by this Englishman and his son with
out an army and without a European staff. IL
any Englishman can do this IN the Soudan, 1t Is
General Gordon.