27 o Churchill on the Mahdi's Head [1909 



spondent.' He went on to Kitchener and the Mahdi's head. Kitch- 

 ener, he said, had behaved like a blackguard in that business. He pre- 

 tended to have sent the head back to Soudan in a kerosene tin, but the 

 tin may have contained anything, perhaps ham sandwiches. He kept 

 the head, and has it still. ' I made a row about that,' he said, ' though 

 they told me it was bad taste for a young Lieutenant to say anything. 

 I always hated Kitchener, though I did not know him personally. They 

 are ashamed of the matter now, but I took pains to remind them of it 

 two years ago when the case for Mambata's mutilation in Natal was 

 brought forward. I had to defend the Government. " At any rate," 

 I said, " We have an excellent precedent for what was done to the 

 Zulu Chief in what Lord Kitchener did to the Mahdi when he blew 

 up the body and kept the head." There was a question raised about 

 a medal being struck for the campaign amongst the Zulus, and they 

 sent the sketch of it to me at the Office for approval. I wrote on it: 

 " Surely the medal ought to have Mambata's head on it, not the King's." 

 This docket must be still at the War Office.' 



" From this we went on to the characters of various personages ; 

 Morley's, which he praised, because he always learned something 

 from talking with him, though he more or less agreed with me about 

 him as a poor politician, and the mess he had made about that very 

 Mahdi's head business. Of Arthur Ealfour he narrated how Belloc 

 had spoiled a dinner-party at Harry Cust's where Arthur and several 

 others had been. The house had caught fire during the dinner, and 

 after putting it out they all drank champagne, and Arthur had grown 

 talkative and confidential, and was just launching into the secret history 

 of the South African War when Belloc insisted upon giving his own 

 views and kept on talking all night and Arthur never got in again. 

 Winston corresponds with Labby, of whom he has a good opinion, 

 and he admires Chamberlain, ' Old Joe,' because he is unscrupulous 

 and bold ; but he says Labby is an example of failure in that line. He 

 had the ambition of being in the Cabinet, or else an ambassador, and 

 he succeeded in neither. About South Africa he told how he had 

 dined with Moore, the Natal Premier, a little while ago, and how 

 Moore had said to him, appropos of what was going on in India : 

 ' Well, Churchill, I suppose you'll have to bleed them soon ; there's 

 nothing like it. Next time they have a demonstration ride them down, 

 and if that isn't enough pour in a volley. You'll bleed a few thousands 

 of them, but it will be better for them in the long run; there's nothing 

 like bleeding.' Winston did not talk as much about India as I had 

 hoped, but he said: ' If they ever unite against us and put us in Cov- 

 entry all round, the game would be up. If they could agree to have 

 nothing at all to do with us the whole thing would collapse.' 



