THE MAHDI AND GORDON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1260, 23 April 1886, Page 3

THE MAHDI AND GORDON .

Baron de Billing, formerly the French representative- at Tunis, has addressed to M. Henri Rochefort the following letter, which appeared in the ‘ Intransigeant’:— “ Amvenay, near Meursault, Cote d’Or.

“ My dear friend, —I am following with the utmost attention everything that relates to the sad end of poor Oliver Pain. As so m as the news of his death reached. me 1 hastened to write to my Mussulman friends to try to obtain some information which might throw light on this sinister event. T shall soon return to Palis, and shall verbally communicate to you cei tain facts which are of great im* portance for the completion of the indispensable inquiry which it is our duty to institute. “ Some months before the fall of Khartoum a party of influential Mussulmans called on in«j. It is now no secret that the Mahdi had in Europe (in Paris, Berlin, and London) a number of agents, who kept him extremely well acquainted with the plans of the English Government. You know to whom I allude. tSo little did the Mahdi contemplate killing Gordon that his friends 'm Europe called, as I said, on me, and, being aware that .1 had for many years had the honor of knowing Lord Lyons and Lord Granville, they begged mo to proceed to the British ' Embassy with the following pro-

poßals: ■ !, “ Thq MaL'di undertook to send General GoMon to Suakira, or to any other port on the Bed Sea, or to the ' English foreposts in the direction of Dougola, at the choice of the British Government. Lord Lyons was im-. mediately to pay L2OOO in ready money to a person residing in Paris whom I was to mention to hitn, and then L 48.000 to a banker whom I was also to name, <on the day when the official intelligence that Gordon, safe an,d sound, had been handed over to the English authorities should have arrrived in Paris. I went to Lord Lyons, who forthwith transmitted to his Government the proposition made by the Mahdi’s agents. The British Cabinet sat in Council the following morning, but at Lord Granville’s instance it was decided that an offer which would certainly have saved Gordon’s life, and would have spared England an expenditure of L 4,000,000, should not be taken into consideration Lord Lyons, with his' wonted courtesy, at once informed me of Lord Granville’s reply, the tenor of which I in turn hastened to communicate to the interested parties. We have reasons (which for the present it is useless to impart to anyone but yourself) for believing that there is a verv direct connection between the putting of a price on poor Pain’s head and the proposal made by the Mahdi’s agents that a ransom .should he paid for Gordon’s deliverance. For that moment it is established beyond all contestation that it is to Lord Granville that England owes the failure of the Soudan expedition and the death of Gordon. It is because he would not consent to a miserable outlay of L 50,000 that the English taxpayer's now see their imposts attaining formidable propor* tions. Do what you liko with this letter. lam of opinion that the proposition of the Mahdi’s , agents was perfectly genuine. All the greater, then, is Lord Granville’s guilt for having paid no attention to it. As for poor Pain, I am sure of the honest support of my Mussulman friends They know through me how much you loved him, and you may rest assured that they will do all they possibly can to give us practical information as to his fate.

“P.S.—You are the only person who now knows of the negotiations entrusted to me bvtheMahdi's agents. As Khartoum has been taken, and as the English believe that Gordon is dead, I am now free to speak.”