4 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.
to reach Dongola without passing through Khartum. He is at Obeid. He will probably advance northward, leaving Khartum
on his right, and seize Dongola. From Dongola it is quite easy
to strike Berber, and at Berber he will be able to sever all com-
munications between the base at Suakim on the Red Sea and
Khartum. It is impossible for Egypt to abandon her hold on her possessions in the south. It may be difficult to reconquer them.
It is impossible to abandon them. The road must be kept open from Suakim to Berber, from Berber to Khartum, and from
Khartum to Sennar. And that is what leads me to attach great importance to the defeat of Captain Moncrieff at Tokar. That reverse at the hands of Bedouins shows that even close to the
littoral of the Red Sea communications are not safe. The rising
of these Bedouins should be suppressed at once."
It was rather an artful touch to suggest making either of the
princes sole ruler of the provinces, especially as one of them had already been suspected of having on his own account, or as an
agent of Ismail, increased the dissatisfaction that resulted in the
rebellion of Arabi; but still there is much in the opinion which
the ex-khedive expressed that showed which way the intention of the Egyptian ministry would be likely to turn, on their con-
sidering the subject of abandoning the Soudan. The determination of the British government to restrict their
operations to Egypt proper and the advice that they had given
with regard to the abandonment of the Soudan was repeatedly considered in the Egyptian councils during the early part of January, 1884, and it was resolved to offer a partial compliance with the representations which had been so seriously urged. It was proposed to resign Darfur, Kordofan, and the other provinces, which were already in the hands of the rebellious natives and the followers of the Mahdi, and to offer the Eastern Soudan to the
sultan, but the Egyptian government strongly objected to retire from Khartum. This decision may have been influenced by the opinion that the insurrection would eventually die out either
because of dissensions among the tribes or from their probable
disaffection when the Mahdi attempted to subject them to the