New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-07
By WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON

of achieving the impossible, and Kitchener
had genius. There were years of obscure.
laborious and often seemingly thankless toll,
but all were leading to Khartoum. At lengt.
he was promoted to be Sirdar, on the recos-
mendation of Lord Cromer himself; the man
who knew Egypt far better than Egypt knew
itself. Then came the opportunity of life
time and of an age.
Had the young soldiers counsel been
needed years before, there would have been
no need of the River War. lie had planned
the one practical campaign for the timely re-
lief and rescue of Gordon at Khartoum. Had
his plan been adopted and followed, Khartoum
would not have fallen, Gordon would not have
persisted, and the years of blood and ire in
the Soudan would never have occurred. But he
was overruled, not by military but by po-
litical superiors, with a Grass folly which al
most justifies the hideous suspicion that they
meant purposely to sacrifice the hero whom
they had sent to be the savior of Khartoum
When too late the ill-starred relief exped-
ton was sent, Kitchener had performed prod
igies in it's behalf, though all in vain Faith
had been broken. The hero was betrayed by
the very government whose political life he
had saved
But Kitchener remembered. and when he
became Sirdar he undertook upon his per-
sonal responsibility, to avenge the hero
whom he had not been permitted TO save.
His method of procedure was Characteristic.
There were no pompous proclamations, no
pretentious preparations, though Of practical
preparations of the most thorough and pains
taking sort there were no lack. The expedl-
ton was few in numbers, and its pecuniary
means were scanty, while the task before it
was more than Herculean. When the grim day
was done, 10000 Dervishes lay dead upon
the sands of Omdurman, and Gordon was
avenged. Half a generation before Gordon
himself had given the watchword, "Smash
the Mahdi!" Now Kitchener had smashed
not merely the Mahdi but Mahdsm.
But 10000 dead Dervishes did not satisfy
the memorable Sirdar as an offering and
memorial TO Gordon. Forthwith, as earnest
~ and efficiently as he had prepared for
the River War, he began to ciyilize the Sou
dan The work for enlightenment and Chris
tianity which Gordon had begun and to which
he had been a martyr, was renewed, and was
crowned by Kitchener in the completion and
opening of the Gordon Memorial College al
Khartoum, one of the chief centres of light
and civilization in all the Dark Continent.
1t was a curious turn of fate that COM
PEELED Kitchener, only a few weeks after the
triumph at 0mdurman, to send down TO
Fashoda and compel the French to retire
from that place. Thus for a space he was
in antagonism to the very nation for whom
his first fighting had been done, and against
the very man, Marchand, who was later to be
his ally and comrade in arms against COM
mon foe. But in that unfortunate episode
he bore himself so like diplomat and peace
maker as we'll as a soldier that he incurred
no enmity from the people to whom he half
belonged.
Next came his service in South Africa, 10
complete the work which Roberts had begun
His conduct of the campaign against the
Beers was marked with the same methodical
and minute preparation and the same inexor-
able resolution in execution that had marked
the River War He incurred, it is true, much
criticism, even condemnation, from the parti-
sans of the Beers; for that a war in
which passions were stirred more deeply than
in most conflicts. His system of concentra-
ton camps for women and children was
especially denounced. Yet there was never
any cause for alleging wanton inhumanity.
while prudent and impartial observers were
convinced that the system was in a double
sense humane, in that it protected the peo-i
pie thus confined from immeasurably worse
hardships and perils and in that it greatly
FASTENED the ending of the conflict But the
best vndication of his policy was found in
the attitude and the testimony OF the Boers
themselves at the end of the war, when thev
regarded him with confidence and affection
often raised 10 degree of real enthusiasm
as conqueror who was as kind and generous
in peace as he had been stern and ruthless