The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
command, had marched about 850 miles; that the strength of the regiment
upon leaving Korti was 23 officers and 373 men; and that its strength
upon its return was 15 officers and 256 men.
Only four of his men arrived on camels. Not one of my sailors fell out
during the whole way from Gubat to Korti.
Here, perhaps, it is not inopportune to place on record how delighted I
was to work with the Army. We are really only one Service, for the
protection of one Empire.
Nor, perhaps, to relate how that Her Majesty Queen {329} Victoria, when
she pinned the C.B. to my coat, said low, "I am very glad to give you
this, Lord Charles. I am very pleased with you."
Her Majesty's words were my reward; for I will own that decorations as
such have never attracted me.
I desire to record the excellent service of Captain F. R. Boardman
(afterwards Admiral Frederick Ross Boardman, C.B.), who invariably did
his utmost at the base to keep the Naval Brigade supplied. It was not
Captain Boardman's fortune to be in the first fighting line, where is
all the fun and where is often all the renown; yet the success of the
fighting line depends entirely upon the energy, forethought and
unselfish loyalty of those at the base of supply.
I happened to be discussing this point with a certain highly
distinguished personage.
"We got all the credit," I said, "but not half enough was given to
those at the base who sent forward the bullets and the grub."
"Grub? What is grub?" inquired the highly distinguished personage.
"I beg your pardon, sir. It is a slang term for food and provisions."
"So grub is food, is it? How very interesting!" said the highly
distinguished personage.
The sequel to our expedition was of course Lord Kitchener's masterly
campaign. After the capture of Omdurman, and the blowing up of the
Mahdi's tomb, it was publicly stated that a certain officer was
bringing home the skull of the holy man, intending to make it into an
inkpot. The House of Commons (of which I was then a member) having
nothing better to do, discussed the matter on 5th June, 1899. Lord
Kitchener sat in the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery. Mr. John Morley
(now Lord Morley) protested against the desecration of the tomb of the
Mahdi. I replied to Mr. Morley, protesting against his assumption of
authority in the matter. I said:
"Now I wish to take, most respectfully, issue with the {330} right
honourable the Member for Montrose upon this point. I say this with
great respect and with great earnestness that so far as I can judge
from the right honourable gentleman's writings and by his teachings, he
is no judge of religious fanaticism whatever. I say this with respect
because, as I understand what he has written, he does not regard
religious fanaticism as anything that can ever be powerful, because he
says himself that he does not understand the question at all. That
being so, I cannot accept the right honourable gentleman as a guide as
to what should be done to check religious fanaticism.... The right
honourable the Member for Montrose does not believe in the power of
religious fanaticism...."
Mr. Morley: "The Noble Lord cannot have read my writings, or else he
would have seen that fanaticism was one of the things I have written
most about" (Hansard 5th June, 1899).
A member said to me in the lobby afterwards: "You really ought not to
say these things. Why do you make these assertions?"
"Because," I said, "I have read Mr. Morley's works."
"You know very well," said my friend, "that you have never read any of
his books."
"I beg your pardon," I replied. "I never go to sleep without reading
one of Mr. Morley's books, and I never read one of Mr. Morley's books
without going to sleep."
{331}
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE SOUDAN WAR (_Continued_)
XII. SEQUEL AND CONCLUSION
For the first few weeks after the return of the Desert Column to Korti,
we all believed that there would be an autumn campaign, and we looked
forward to the taking of Khartoum. Lord Wolseley distributed his
troops among various stations along the Nile from the Hannek Cataract
to Abu Dom, there to remain in summer quarters. In his dispatch of 6th
March, 1885 (Colville's _History of the Soudan Campaign_, Part II.),
Lord Wolseley indicated the force he would require, and requested that
the railway might be continued from Halfa to Ferkeh, a distance of 47
miles. The railway was begun and was eventually completed. By 1st
April the troops were occupying their allotted stations. One
distinguished officer was so certain of remaining in his quarters, that
he sowed vegetables in his garden. But upon 13th April Lord Wolseley
was ordered to consider the measures requisite to effect a total
withdrawal; and British faith was once more broken by a British
Government.
By that time Lord Wolseley, to whose personal staff I was once more
attached, had been to Dongola and had come to Cairo.
The news from home consisted chiefly of rumours of war with Russia; and
I was gratified to learn that largely in consequence of my
representations 50 machine guns had been sent to India. Machine guns
were then upon {332} their trial; and I had been consulted by the
authorities as to their precise utility. We also heard of the hearty
cordiality and enthusiasm with which the Prince and Princess of Wales
were being greeted in Ireland upon the occasion of their visit to my
country. There had been some misgivings upon the subject; and I had
had the honour to suggest to the Prince that if, as well as visiting
towns and cities in state, he went into the country among my people and
shot with them and hunted with them like the sportsman he was, he would
find no more loyal or delightful people in the Queen's dominions.
As a matter of fact, neither in the towns nor anywhere else in Ireland,
did the Prince and Princess receive aught but a most hearty welcome.
Nor did the Nationalist party even attempt to arouse a formal
demonstration directed against their visitors. They might have
suggested, but did not, that some such conventional protest was due to
the doctrine representing Ireland as a conquered country.
At the end of April Lord Wolseley and his staff including myself,
embarked in the s.s. _Queen_ for Souakim.
The Souakim expedition under the command of General Sir G. Graham was
then in full progress. On the 20th February he had been directed to
destroy the power of Osman Digna, and to guard the construction of the
Souakim-Berber railway. On the 20th March, Graham fought the
successful action of Hashin. On the 22nd was fought the bloody
engagement of McNeill's zeriba. The British were surprised while at
work upon the construction of the zeriba; the first shot was fired at
2.50 p.m., and the cease fire was sounded at 3.10. During that twenty
minutes of confused and desperate fighting, some 1500 Arabs out of an
attacking force of 5000 were killed. Desultory firing continued for an
hour, when the enemy retreated. According to the official history, the
British losses were 150 killed, 148 missing, 174 wounded, and 501
camels killed and missing.
The field of battle lay some six miles from Souakim; I {333} rode out
with Lord Wolseley to see it. Before we had ridden three miles in the
dust and the glare of sunlight, the hot air carried a dreadful waft of
corruption. The stench thickened as we drew near. A dusky cloud of
kites and vultures hovered sluggishly and unafraid among a wilderness
of discoloured mounds. The sand was heaped so scantily upon the dead,
that lipless skulls, and mutilated shanks, and clenched hands, were
dreadfully displayed. The bodies of the camels were mingled in a pile
of corruption, clustered upon by the birds of prey.
And wandering about that charnel-ground, raking in it with a hooked
stick, was a strange man whom I had met years ago in Japan, where he
used to photograph the cruel executions of that country. He spoke no
known tongue, but chattered in a jumble of languages; and here he was,
equipped with a camera, and placidly exploring horrors with a hooked
stick. Whence he came, and whither he went, we stayed not to inquire.
Day after day, for many days, the convoys of the expedition must pass
and repass this place, which lay in their direct route, at the slow
march of laden camels, and walking warily, lest they stepped ankle-deep
into a festering corpse.
General Graham, having occupied Tamai, Handub, and Tambuk, dispersed
the force of Mohammed Sardun on the 6th May; an operation which left
him practically master of the district. But on the 11th May, Lord
Wolseley, acting upon the instructions of the Government, ordered the
general withdrawal of all troops from the Soudan. On the 19th, we left
Souakim for Cairo. On the 27th June, Lord Wolseley turned over the
command of the forces in Egypt to General Sir F. Stephenson, and with
his staff left Cairo for Alexandria, there to embark for England.
Seven days previously (on 20th June), though we knew not of it, the
Mahdi, who had given us so much trouble, had died in Khartoum. There
he lay, listening perhaps for the footsteps of the returning English;
for he knew that, although the English are ruled by people having the
appearance of {334} men but the ways of a weathercock, they may go, but
they always come back. Thirteen years the false prophet slept in
peace: and then the man who had sojourned in a cave at the wells of Abu
Klea secretly collecting information, what time the Desert Column
followed a forlorn hope, rode into the Dervish city, and destiny was
fulfilled. Lord Kitchener of Khartoum fulfilled it, as strong men have
a way of doing. A poet once said that the soul of Gladstone is now
probably perching on the telegraph wires that bridge the desert where
we fought to save Gordon, too late. I know nothing about that; but I
know what the betrayal cost.
We learned afterwards that ere the Mahdi died, he had begun to
concentrate his armies upon Dongola, a movement that was continued
after his death, until the Dervishes were finally defeated by General
Stephenson, at Ginnis, on 30th December, 1885.
General Dormer had a way of his own with the Mahdi's disciples.
Addressing a prisoner, he said:
"I suppose you believe in the Mahdi because he can work miracles. Can
your prophet pluck out his eye and put it back again? Well, I am no
prophet, but I can."
And with that, Dormer took his glass eye from its socket, tossed it in
the air, caught it, and replaced it. The Arab was dumbfounded.
{335}
CHAPTER XXXV
ORGANISATION FOR WAR
There is nothing quite so dead as dead politics; therefore I do not
intend to dwell upon my political experiences, except in so far as they
relate to the purpose for which I entered Parliament. That purpose was
to serve the interests of the Royal Navy. Politics, as such, have
never greatly interested me; the Party system always appeared to me to
involve a sacrifice of principle; and if I am associated with the party
with which I am naturally most in sympathy, at least I may claim to
have attacked them quite as often as I have attacked their political
opponents. In return, they have often declined to support me in my
proposals; which, however, have always been supported by the public,
and which as a rule have ultimately been adopted by the authorities.
In 1885, the Parliamentary tradition which I had known ten years
previously, remained unchanged. During the succeeding generation it
became gradually transformed. Old members, like myself, will
understand what I mean. New members can have little notion of the
House of Commons their fathers knew. In one respect, at least, the
alteration is even startling. The public interest in politics and in