126 The Frontier Incident [!894 



who held the position of Sirdar of the Egyptian army, was already 

 busying himself with preparing things on the Soudanese frontier for the 

 advance he had in contemplation beyond Wady Haifa against the 

 Khalifa (who had succeeded on the Mahdi's death to his power at Om- 

 durman), by endeavouring to obtain the alliance of the various tribal 

 Sheykhs in Nubia and Upper Egypt. These proceedings were veiled 

 in extreme military secrecy, the details being carefully withheld from 

 the Khedive, notwithstanding the fact that Abbas was nominally Com- 

 mander in Chief of his own Egyptian army. This the young man 

 resented, among other British encroachments on his Vice-regal power, 

 and it was a matter that was much discussed between him and his in- 

 timates, some of whom were young officers who encouraged him to 

 assert himself as a reply to Cromer's call a year before for British 

 reinforcements. Cromer on his side, as has been seen, though unwill- 

 ing for financial reasons to make any new move in the direction of a 

 Soudan campaign, kept the necessity of such a campaign in reserve as 

 a useful argument for deferring the evacuation among those which he 

 brought forward when the possibility of withdrawing our troops was 

 under discussion with the home Government. It will be understood 

 by this, how in the present instance he had a double reason for sup- 

 porting Kitchener in his not originally serious dispute with the Khedive, 

 and making it the occasion of a new trial of strength with Abbas, and 

 a new change of Ministers. 



" 5th Feb. — Osman Ghaleb came and stopped to luncheon, and gave 

 me the whole history of what had happened in my absence. According 

 to him the Khedive, while making a tour on the Upper Nile, was deter- 

 mined to find out exactly the state of affairs in regard to the Soudan, 

 and insisted upon being shown everything and seeing everybody. 

 Kitchener, who was with him, and had heard of this intention, tried to 

 prevent it, and to keep him especially away from visiting the prisons, 

 where a number of political persons were detained, Sheykhs of tribes 

 and others connected with the Soudanese hostilities. But the Khedive 

 insisted, and the prisoners appealed to him, and told him their griev- 

 ances, and he ordered a number of them to be released. It has been 

 a system on the frontier to pay subsidies to certain Sheykhs of tribes 

 (friendlies), who are allowed to harry the others, and complaints on 

 this head were made to Abbas. Kitchener, who does everything up 

 there in the name of England, being unable to contest the Khedive's 

 right to pardon, ordered the pardoned prisoners to be released, but in 

 Queen Victoria's name. There was also some trouble about a hospi- 

 tal which Kitchener did not wish his Highness to see, saying there 

 were seventy cases of smallpox in it, but the Khedive went and found 

 there were but sixty patients in all, and no smallpox case. 



" Again on the frontier, Abbas insisted on receiving certain Sheykhs 



