The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-07-10
THE sIRDAR OF EGYPT.
Sir Eerbert Kitchener, the Spy of
the Soudan-
Stories Of His Early Career in the ESEP-
tan Army by 4 War Correspondent
in the Gordon Relief tx
petition


have been knighted and had brigade
given him. AS II was, he was shot.
Mai. Herbert Kitchener. also a spy.
succeeded in the last Soudan war. and
today he is sirdar. that IS, commander
in-cbief. OF the Egyptian army.
There have been few more adTen-
turous and effective careers than that
OF Kitchener.
Il Americans. in any calculation that
nav be made as TO an Anglo-Amer7can
var. take as a consideration the pig
tailed, misunderstanding British OFFICER
Of the wars OF the revolution and 512
an Officer whose soul was stepped IL
ri2e-clay and consequentiality-
wil find themselves mistaken Nolse-
ley and the competitive examination
have done away with him altogether
The Crimea. the Indian mutiny and
half a dozen smaller wars have taught
the Horse Guards much. The Beers
at Maiuba gave them final lesson.
The DAYS Of men ike Braddock, who
formed close-order under fire in an an
buscade. 70 the disgust of Washington.
have gone by. Englishmen have learned
By bitter experience 10 scout and 70
anbuscade as we'll as the historic
Green. Mountain volunteer OF 1776.
10 one has learned that lesson better
than Sir Herbert Kitchener. He learned
il by practice, which probably ac-
counts for his present position. lie
has learned 70 fight the Arab.
Sir Herbert Kitchener had nothing
like as important title when I knew
him q little over ten years ago He
was simply Mai. Kitchener then. But.
even looking al the muddled-up condi-
ton Of things al the present time II
northv 4 Africa and their naOmentoCs
consequences On the history Of the
world-for Egypt always has been q
factor in h;story-making since the
DAYS of Herodotus-it is a question
whether Maj. Kitchener was not just
as rig a man N the ever-changlne
courssaof events in 1885 as he is in this
year Of grace, 1896. For Herbert
Kitchener was then chief Of the In
teIligence corps in the British army.
Intelligence corps is merely formal
title used as a matter Of convenience IN
Horse Guards red-tape, but in Sou
danese warfare il meant what il said.
It meant the lives of several thousand
men, which may be considered an es-
sential matter. especially if you hap
pen To be 2 unit. even an immaterial
unit, in the aforesaid thousands.
Few know the reason Of the present
sirdar's success in life. 1t is merely
history repeating itself. As India was
TO Europe in the last century, so Is
Africa IN the nineteenth. And the
conditions are not dissimilar. AS Give
and Hastings succeeded in India. so is
Kitchener succeeding in northern Afri-
ca. The defense of the methods OF
both Give and Hastings was that the
oriental had TO be fought with his own
weapons. The result has been the
British empire in India. Kitchener
seems an embodiment of the general
ship of Give and the political acumen
of Hastings.
After the defeat OF Arab Pasha at
Tel-el-Kebir in 1882, the Egyptian army
was remodeled on a British basis. The
Egyptian government occupied "a pc
sition in many respects not unlike that
of John Company, and, in fact, it still
occupies that position. To treat the
oriental or the Mohammedan according
to British ideas and British regula-
tions has never succeeded. But it seems
that the occasion always finds the man.
In the establishment of the military
service of Egypt, disorganized by re-
beIlion and defeat, every encourage
ment was given British officers to vol
unteer for African service.
There was nothing more noticeable
about Horatio Herbert Kitchener, then
a mere subaltern in an English reg;-
ment of the line, to distinguish him
from the hundreds Of his fellows who
entered the Egyptian service at that
time than that he had a splendid
know the why and wherefore of things.
The Egyptian army and oriental poll
tics gave every opportunity TO man or
an inquiring mind and an adventurous
spirit. Kitchener had both, and it was
not long before the young English
subaltern saw that the only way in
which the Arab of the desert, the
sworn foe of Egyptian rule 1.-THE rule OF
the Turk, as he called it, could be fought
with any degree of success was by un-
Outstanding him and his methods Of
war. Kitchener proceeded to under
stand them. Leave after leave of alb
sence were given him, and these peri
DDS were spent in hazaars and in the
outlying towns up the river where the
Bedouin of the desert paid his fitful
visits. 1t soon became mooted through
out the mess-rooms of the army that
Kitchener had become infatuated with
Arab life. and the younger members
chafingly referred to him as a promis-
ing Mohammedan convert. But Kitch-
ener kept on his way and soon had his
reward in being advanced two steps in
rank and in making an impression on
the minister of war and Lord Cromer,
the British envoy, that he knew more
about the true inwardness of Arab life
than any other European in the service.
From Cairo to Dongola, from Dongola
to Berber and from Berber 10 Sualzim
he roamed, sometimes as a Greek mer-
chant, and, it has been said. Travelled
the great Bayuda desert as a fanaticaI
dervish. But when the Gordon relief
expedition was reluctantly entered
upon by Gladstone. Maj. Kitchener. ar
known outside of Egypt. had a lsnowl-
edge of the situation cnd the people in