THE SOUDAN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 105, 9 April 1885, Page 3

THE SOUDAN.

According to Enylarifl', General Gordon informed Lor.l Wolscley m October vhal ci.Ttain ot his messages woro to ho liikcii m a BM»se of the exact contrary to Lint m which they were written. This explains this brief and ronmrkaiile jm-s---sag<j ot 29th December, which said -Kh.irtoumnli right can holuoutforyoars." i'iiis was sent wlien Gordon was under I lily fear of treachery, when his provisions were (xeoedinnly scaroe, and when the onslaught of th« Mahdi wen* becoming more furious. It waa knowledge of these dangers which led Lord Wolseley to send Sir Herbert Stewart's gallant little force on its adventurous march across the desert to Me.teumeh. ..It is pleasant to learn that the heroism of the gallant Gordon is known and admired even amongst the Maoris. A gentleman who visited the Flou Hou pah the other day, informs ut that he satr there a number ofportraits of theHcro of Khartoum, and thai, m conversation with the Natives ho discovered that they regarded him with absolute reverence. Sir John Rqbertson speaking m the Sydney Parliament on the despatch of the Sondan contingent, said : — " He ob-. served ..that New Zealand did not intend to lielp m. aiiy way m the matter. He woiild ask the house and the country what was New Zealand going to do ? New Zealand waß going to lay by and watch the cable. That was a most despicable position for any great colony to take up. He hoped no other colony would bo cowardly enough to do a thing like that. He, however, did not believe the telegram m reference to this matter, he loqked upon them as slanders. Where would the cable bo if it were not for the fleet ?»• It is noted by a correspondent (says the Daily Telegraph) as a significant fact fully confirming the reports which have cropped up from time to time that the Mahdi has had no lack of skilled and even European assistants, and that for the first time m the annals of our warfaro with savage tribes the enemy put into the field a body of picked riflemen. These men who seem to have caused considerable annoyance to our troops, were probably trained by the ox-Aus-trian soldiers who served under Hicks Pasha's army and actod as servants to Baron Suckeudorff. Other Europeans were reported so far back as last aum- ! mer to be m the Mahdi's camp and m high favor and command. Since then M. Oliver Pain, the French journalist, who has also considerable military knowledge, has joiued the Mahdi. In addition to these men the Prophet htss m his army a considerable number of Egyptian officers, including at least one of Arabi Pasha's famous colonels, who commanded the Nubian Regiment quartered at Damielta m 1882, aud who refused for Boruo time to. surrender to tbo British iruroo, even after the btvttlo of Tel-el Kebir. *