— 93 — policy that the Gladstone administration declined to entertain. And here one may legitimately ask why the Government, having rejected the advice of the local authorities, made no attempt to put forward a solution on its own behalf. Surely it was the bounden duty of the Government, if they rejected the deliberate opinion of the local authorities to suggest a practicable alternative ? It is true that at the time the British Government had no desire to become embroiled in Sudan affairs, but in that case it is difficult to see why they should choose to interfere with the policy of those who were so concerned.

Winston Churchill rightly remarks "that the refusal to permit his, i.e. Zubeir's, employment was tantamount to an admission that affairs in the Sudan involved the honour of England as well as the honour of Egypt. When the British people—for this was not merely the act of the Govermment— adopted a high moral attitude with regard to Zubeir, they bound themselves to rescue the garrisons, peaceably if possible, forcibly if necessary".

The appointment of Zubeir would admittedly have been ahasardous undertaking, but there was no alternative fuggested by the Government except the negative one of evacuating the country. And this although the inevitable result must have been the abandonment of the natives to the unrestrained excesses of the slave hunters. The appointment of Zubeir