SIR SAMUEL BAKER'S PLAN. 1 87 On the 14th of May Sir Samuel Baker, in a long letter to the Times, had reminded the public that he had said the retreat from Khartum could not be effected, that it was the key or strategical point upon which the safety of Lower Egypt must depend, and its evacuation was a political blunder and a practical impossibility.

He advocated an immediate change of front, the modification of the declaration of abandonment and a proclamation of a geographical definition of the territory of Egypt: the country to be divided into two provinces — Upper and Lower Egypt. "The frontier ot Lower Egypt to extend south as far as Assouan; that of Upper Egypt to latitude 13 degrees, and to embrace the Sennar district between the White 'and Blue Niles. The White Nile would form the well-defined western boundary. The eastern boundary would be the Atbara River from Gellabat upon the Abyssinian frontier to the Red Sea. Thus, although the Soudan should be abandoned, and the geographical term should be eradicated from the territory •of Egypt, the frontiers of Upper Egypt should be so absolutely defined as to remain without doubt or question. Khartum should be the capital of Upper Egypt, and Kassala, Gellabat, Sennar, Berber, and Dongola would represent the chief centres and principal towns of the newly constituted provinces. A viceroy, nominated by the khedive, should represent the government, assisted by a council."

He believed that if this proclamation were made immediately, and that 3000 Indian troops were landed at once at Suakim with reserves at Bombay, the black troops reorganized in Lower Egy] 1 and marched to Berber, and preparations were made lor an expedition of 10,000 men directly the rise of the Nile permitted naviga tion from Cairo to Dongola and south to Berber and Khartum, many of the tribes would return to their allegiance and the reliei of Khartum and the suppression of the Mahdi's rebellion might be effected. This opinion is worth attention even now, but events at that time had moved more quickly than even Sir S. Baker knew ; and Berber was about to fall.

It was declared on all hands that if nothing was to be done beyond increasing the Egyptian troops at Wady Haifa, sending