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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2175, 27 April 1908, Page 2

LORD CROMER AND GENERAL GORDON.

The publication of two volumes by Lord Cromor under, the title of “(Modern Egypt” is an advent that has produced considerable interest in England. The “London Times” describes it as a contribution of first- class importance to tho applied science of statesmanship, a contribution for which it would be hard to find a parallel. It proceeds to add:—“AA’e cannot, in fact, recall another instance of a statesman sitting down, as Lord GYomer has done, immediately after his retirement from a long and arduous term of public service, as momentous and as responsible as any in the annals of our Empire, and rendering account of his stewardship with the detachment and circumspection which we are accustomed to associate with the philosophic student rather than with the man of action.” A particularly interesting portion of Lord Cromer’s boo'k is that which gives the opinion of a famous statesman upon a famous soldier.

“No one who has read General Gordon’s journals, with their extraordinary attacks on all the officials in Egypt, especially Lord Cromer:—pr Sir Evelyn Baring, as he then was—can have, avoided wondering what Lord Cromer thought of Gordon,” writes the “Daily Chronicle.” "Mr. Gladstone, as we all know, was onco asked the question, and refused to bo drawn. All he would say was that General Gordon was a ‘hero of heroes.’ So ho undoubtedly was. But heroes are often ‘kittle cattle to deal with; and General Gordon seems to have been no exception. Lord Cromer does every credit to the loftiness of Gordon’s motives and the heroism

of his death. But ho reveals by the process of simple narrative tlio difficulty lie experienced in dealing with a man who changed his mind several times a day, and recorded every change in successive telegrams.” Lord Cromer shows in detail the changes of mind to which Gordon was liable, ami thereby justifies his own opinion that tlio General was not a suitablo agent for the Government’s purposo. Yot no one hotter appreciated than Lord Cromer tho heroism of the man whoso kaleidoscopic changes of plan caused him .so much embarrassment.

“In this narrative,” writes Lord Cromer, “I liavo alluded to General Gordon’s numerous inconsistencies. I lmvo pointed out errors of judgment with which lie may justly bo charged. I havo dwelt on defects of character which unsuited him for the conduct of political affairs. But, when all this. lia.s been said, how grandly tlio character of tho man comes out in tho filial scono of tho Soudan tragedy. History has recorded few incidents more calculated to striko tho imagination than that presented by this brave man; who, strong in the faith which sustained him, stood undismayed amidst dangers which might havo well appalled the stoutest heart. Hordes of savngo fanatics surged around him. Shot and shell poured into tho town which ho was defending against fearful odds. Starvation stared him in tho faco. ‘Tlio soldiers had to eat dogs, donkeys, skins of animals, gum, and palm fibre, and famino prevailed. Tho soldiers stood on tho fortifications liko pieces of wood. Tho civilians wore even worse off. Alany died of hunger, and corpses filled the streets—no ono had any energy to bury them.’ Treachery an d internal dissension threatened him from within, whilst a waste of burning African desert separated him from the outward help which his countrymen, albeit tardily, were straining every nervo to afford,” continues Lord Cromer. “All tlio anxiety lie bad undergouo had gradually turned his hair to a silvery wliito.’ ‘Yet,’ said an eye-witness, ‘in spite of all this ho had no fear.’ ‘Go,’ ho said, ‘tell all tlio people in Khartonm that Gordon fears nothing, for God has created him without fear.’ Nor was tlds. an idle boast. General Gordon did not know what tho word fear meant. Death had no terrors for him. ‘I would,’ ho wrote to his sister, ‘that all men could look on death as a clicerful friend who takes us from a world of trial to our true home.’ Alany a man before General Gordon lias laid down liis. lifo at tlio call of duty. Many a man, too, lias striven to regard deatli as a-glad relief frotn pain, sorrow, suffering. But no soldier about to load a forlorn hope, no Christian martyr tied to the 6take or thrown to tlio wild beasts of Ancient ROmo,.ever faced death with more unconcern than General Gordon. His faith was sublime. Strong in that faith fie could meet the savage who plunged a spear into his breast with a gesture of scorn, and with tho sure and certain hone of immortality which had been promised him by the Alaster in whose footsteps lie had endeavored to follow.”

“'General Gordon died nobly, but, by his own admission, lie disobeyed his instructions. ‘Like Lord Lawrence,’ lie wrote to bis sister, ‘I. have tried to do my duty.’ But what is ‘duty’? asks the “Chronicle.” “Is it comnatible with disobedience to written instructions? Lord Cromer thinks not.”