EUROPEAN NEWS BY THE RUAPEHU.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 82, 4 March 1884, Page 2

EUROPEAN NEWS BY THE RUAPEHU.

The New Zealand Shipping Company’s steamship Ruapehu, from London direct, arrived in harbor yesterday. She brings files of the London newspapers to January 11th, and from these we extract the following items of interest:— SIR SAMUEL BAKER ON THE ABANDONMENT OF THE SOUDAN.

Sir Samuel Baker, writing to the Times on the determination of the Government to abandon the Soudan, says : —Accepting this miserable decision as final, the public has a right to determine that the requisite steps shall immediately be taken to ensure the safe retreat of the garrisons of Khartoum and other military positions in the Soudan. By this time the news has been transmitted to Khartoum by those merchants in Cairo who are interested in the slave-trade, and within a few days the intelligence will have spread far and wide that the country is to be abandoned. Every man’s hand will be armed to harass the retreat of those humili* ated troops, who must thus turn their backs upon a defiant rabble. Khartoum will be pillaged and fired the instant that the garrison shall have crossed the river. The march will then commence. A crowd of women and children, their homes abandoned, their occupation gone, their prospects ruined—these will have to be protected by the retiring troops, whose fighting powers will be paralysed by the incongruous mass of baggage carried by the host of fugitives. A grave responsibility will rest upon the Ministry that shall give orders for the evacuation of the Soudan. Unless adequate precautions shall be promptly taken, the dreadful tragedy of General Hicks will be repeated.

INTERVIEW WITH NUBAR PASHA. The correspondent of the Standard, describing an interview with Nubar Pasha, the new Prime Minister, says:—“ I said I thought that the other Ministers were judiciously chosen with regard to the needs of the present situation. He assented, and asked me if I were a philogist. ‘ For’ said he, ‘ you should know that just now the word Minister in Egypt is derived from the Latin word ‘ minus,’ and Ministers here are equal to an algebraical minus sign, meaning something less than nothing. You and I know this perfectly well.’ I asked if Fehmy would be a good Minister of Justice. He smiled and said, ‘ You have just seen the Ministry of Finance—Mr. Edgar Vincent and Blum Pasha—who left the room as you came in. What does it matter whether Fehmy or another bears the name ?’ I found Sherif at his own house playing billiards, and evidently much relieved by freedom from the pressure of State affairs. He said, ‘ We have thousands of men in the Soudan, and nothing should ever induce me to allow them to be abandoned to the miseries of Mahdi rule. I am sure I am right. Time and posterity will judge between me and Mr. Gladstone in this matter.’ ” From the above conversations, the correspondent remarks, it is clearly evident that the whole comedy of the Egyptian Ministerial administration is understood by none better than by Ministers themselves. The only persons who seem to have a right to complain are the Egyptians, who, while knowing that the country is virtually governed by English officials nominally subordinate, have still to pay the cost of expensive dummy Ministers. A FRENCH VIEW OF THE ACTION OF ENGLAND. The Paris Temps comes to the following conclusion as to the causes of the hesitation of the Gladstone Cabinet:—Mr. Gladstone and the Cabinet over which he presides are perplexed both by the division of opinion of their own political friends and by their own scruples. The Liberal party is to a considerable extent swayed by a kind of humanitarian and cosmopolitan radicalism, which pre-occupies itself with the rights of nationalities, the liberties of peoples, and utterly indifferent to the traditione of England’s greatness. It is a party which entertains doubt as to whether the possession of Gibraltar and India be legitimate, and which feels the utmost repugnance against a policy of conquest. Mr. Gladstone himself, by every tendency of his mind, by the abstract character of his conceptions, as well as by the purity and generosity of his soul, belongs to the party whose opinions we have just described. In addition, we are bound to take into account the engagements forced upon him by his virulent denunciations of the conquering tendencies of Lord Beaconsfield. Hence a repugnance to entangle himself further in Egyptian affairs. The British Premier feels that he is acting in contradic-

tion to his own professions and principles, and that he runs the risk of wounding the secret sympathies of a notable portion of his supporters. But, after all. he should have thought of all this before bombarding Alexandria, and sending Lord Wolseley to Egypt. Mr. Gladstone is no longer free to stop in the path on which he has entered, or to retrace his steps. He is bound to organise Egypt even more directly than we have organised Tunis.