WHY GORDON WAS NOT RESCUED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2003, 30 May 1885, Page 2

WHY GORDON WAS NOT RESCUED.

A private letter received in Melbourne from an officer high in command at Korti attributes the failure in relieving Khartoum to the unfortunate circumstance of the command-in-chief having devolved npon Sir Charles Wilson. "Had not poor Stewart been wounded," the writer says, 'and poor Burnaby killed, who was sent out to be the fighting man in the event of accident to Stewart, ho should for certain have taken Metemmehby the 20th, passed on steamers te Khartoum on the 21st or 22nd, and been at Khartoum, two days before it fell, whereas vacillation and incompetence ruined everything. Instead of pushing into Meteinmeh on the J9th (evening) or 20th (morning), and pnshing on to Khartoum immediately, the steamer arrived at Gubat, a meaningless attempt to take Metemineh waß made on the 20th and 21st (called reconaissances), and no attempt to push steamers on to Gordon, which was not made till the 24th, really the morning of the 25th, It is all too horrible to think of how the result of incompetency and direct disobedience to orders has been tho appalling calamity of the fall of Khartoum, and the death of poor Gordon It is very sad to think that Wolseley could and would have saved him if only his instructions had been faithfully and intelligently carried out, as they certainly would have been by Stewart or Burnaby. If only a third spare wheel had been provided like either of those men, all would have been well, and what has now ended in a total collapse would have been handed down to history as one of the most brilliant achievements."—Argus.