The Pall Mall Gazetic publishes a long statement of great interest which one of its representatives extracted from General Gordon on his arrival in England. She General is slated to have shown considerable disinclination to express his opinions fon the Soudan, but eventually did so, and when once started spoke for along time, the conversation lasting for two hours, with, now, and then, the "greatest animation and even vehemence." The following passages will illustrate the views of the General and make the telegrams which we have lately concerning his doings in Egypt.
abandonment of the Soudan and the withdrawal of the forces in it to Wadi Haifa he said:—"So you would abandon the Soudan? But the Eastern Soudan is indispensable to Egypt. It will cost you far more to retain your hold weet CAP tekateet Soudan to the Maha proper if you abandon your or to the Tork than what it would to retain your hold upon Eastern Soudan by the aid Of such material as exists in the provinces. Darfur and Kordofan must be abandoned. phar I admit; but the provinces lying to the east of the White Nile should be retained, and north of Senaar, The danger to be feared is not that the Mahdi will, march northward through Wadi Haifa; on the contrary, it is very improbable that he will ever go so far north, The danger is altogether of a different nature. It arises from the influence which the spectacle of a conquering Mahommedan Power, established close to your frontiers, i © upon the population which you Tw all the cities in Egypt it ill be felt that what the Mahdi has done may do; and, as ho has driven out the intruder and the infidel, they may do Nor is it only England that has Mahdi has already excited dangerous fermentation in Arabia and Syria, Placards have been posted in Damascus calling upon the population to rise and drive out the Turks. If the whole of the Eastern Soudan is surrendered to the Mahdi, the Arab tribes on both sides the Red Sea will take fire. In self-defence the Turks are bound to do something to cope with so formidable a danger, for it is quite possible that if nothing is done the whole of the Eastern Question may be re-opened by the triumph ofthe Mahdi, I see it is proposed to fortify Wadi Haifa, and prepare there to resist the Match's attack. You might as well fortify against a fever. Contagion of that kind cannot be kept out by fortifications and prisons, But that it is real, and that it joes exist, will be denied by no one cognisant with Egypt and the East. In self-defence the policy of evacuation cannot possibly be justified.
'There is' another aspect of the question, You have 6,000 men in Khartoum. What are you going to do with them? You have garrisons in Darfur, in Bahr Gazelle, and Goudokoro. Are they to be sacrificed? Their only offence is their loyalty to their Sovereign. For their Gdelity you are going to abandon them to their Tate. You say they are to retire upon Wadi Haifa, But Gondokoro is 1,500 miles from Khartoum, and Khartoum is 350 only from Wadi Half, How will you move your 6,000 men from Khartoum—to say nothing of other places—and all the European in that city, through the desert to Wadi Haifa? Where are you going to get the camels to take them away? Will the Mahdi supply them? If they are to escape with their lives, the garrison will not be allowed to leave with a coat on their bache,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.