452 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE, In Egypt, and on the Continent, the impression gained ground that England had no intention of ever assisting Egypt in the recovery of the Soudan.

I do not think people at home realized the dangers of this policy of non-intervention, based as it was upon the fallacy that the provinces bordering on the Upper and the Lower Nile could be regarded distinct States, having no natural connection with one another. In connection with this remark, I may relate here an incident which came within my personal knowledge, and which illustrates the difficulties that might easily have arisen from our lack of foresight During the period of Riaz's Ministry, my old friend, Sir Samuel Baker, called on me in London to ask for my co-operation in a project he had in view. He told me that, as a former Governor-General of the Soudan, he was deeply concerned with the fate of the provinces over which he had ruled, that he felt convinced, from the information he had received, that our own Government would do nothing to rescue the Soudan from the tyranny of the Dervishes, and that therefore he had looked about everywhere to see if no other agency could be discovered to save the Soudan from destruction. He further informed me that he had been in communication with German financiers at Berlin, who proposed to provide the funds necessary for the recovery of the Soudan. Their idea was that the German Government should allow a number of its officers to have leave of absence for service abroad ; that these officers should enlist