Books of the Month. 



509 



governs and directs. If a man has a newspaper and 

 occupies an editorial chair he is of necessity of his 

 position only the puppet of the portfolio holder. 

 That the statesman may be in the editorial sanctum 

 and the pupi>et in Downing Street does not seem to 

 have dawned upon Mr. Blunt. Bat it was a tradition that 

 Northumberland Street had jealously preserved from the 

 time when the Sue-c Canal shares were bought at Mr. 

 (.Jreenwood's suggestion. 



THt I'OLRV UF THE " P.M.G." 



Mr. Blunt calls attention to the fact that whereas 

 the Pull Mall Gazctk had strongly advocated the 

 Gladsionian policy in Egypt 

 and the Soudan, it did, after , 

 the defeat of General Hicks 

 and the appearance of Osman 

 Uigna at Suakin, demand a 

 change of policy based on the 

 recognition of the actual facts. 

 He suggests that I yielded to 

 " the same influence " — ■ that 

 of " capitalists and city finan- 

 ciers "—which he declares "set 

 the press in motion on the 

 r|nestion." That is all stuff 

 and nonsense. I yielded to 

 the overwhelming influence of 

 the facts of the situation. Such 

 '• new facts " as the destruction 

 of Hicks' .\rniy and the revolt 

 of the Eastern Soudan con- 

 vinced me that a change of 

 policy was necessary, and, as 

 is my wont, I said so emphati- 

 cally without beating about the 

 buNh. But that this could be 

 the re.-.ult of an independent 

 judgment dealing with the 

 actual facts of the situation is 

 beyond the capacity of Mr. 

 Blunt to conceive. He says: — 



General Charles George Gordon. 



(This pencil sketcli of the General, made just 

 Iwlorc he left for ligypt on December 21st, 

 1SS2, is reproduced from the frontispiece to 

 Mr. Wilfrid Blunt's work.) 



N.. one, I think, with any know- 

 ledge of jiiiirnalism can doubt that a converMon so sudden and 

 sii violent i.in have been due to anything less than a Ministerial 

 him .jf the very dircclcsl kind. 



WHEN LORD ESHER WAS MR. BRETT. 



He further says that it must have been the — 

 nsult of private infornialiun from within ihe Cabinet, probably 

 fioin the War OHice and connnunicalcil by Krett, who was 

 II;irun(;ton's private secretary and his u.sual intermediary witli 

 Ihe press, besides Jjcing an old mcniWr of the Pall ifnlt bt..tf. — 

 I'. 164. 



.\s I have said, I had no communication whatever 

 with -Mr. Brett at that time, nor could he ever be 

 deh( ribed as a member of the Pall Mall staff. Mr. 

 Blunt goes on : — 



I'lr these reasons, too, I refuse to accei>l .as entirely reliable 

 Ml. Stead's claim to al^olutc independence of offici.d inspira- 

 linn m the matter <>f his celebrated intirview with Gordon at 

 .Si.iilliampton, which took pl.icc on the d.ay fellowing the 

 Guieial's ariival there. Mr. Stead's genius may very well have 



conceived tlie idea of llie vi~it as tlie p.irticul.ii form in which 

 Gordon was to be advertised ; but in vic^v of the series of articles, 

 just alluded to, and knowing as I do the ways of journalism 

 and the close connection there was thai year between the Fall 

 Mall Gazette ^ixA the War OHice througli I,ord Esher, and having, 

 moreover, been myself more than once inlerviewed by .\Ir. Stead, 

 I find it impossible not to recogni^e in the sudden entrance of 

 CJordon into the intrigue one of those manoeuvres worked trom 

 time to time in the Fall Mall columns through Lord Esher's 

 agency. 



We know Lord Esher's position at the War Ofiice, and we 

 know his connection with the Pall Mall Cazittc. Lord Eslier 

 was Gordon's friend. Mr. .Stead at the time was not. Lortl 

 Esher w.as conversant with his movements, with his application 

 for leave to serve King Leopold, with the refusal of his leave, 

 and I decline to believe tlial there 

 w.asnohint given on which Mr. Sleail 

 acted. In every newspaper ofiice 

 there are scores of such journalistic 

 secrets never divulged and easily for- 

 gotten, and it seems to me vastly 

 more probable that the Gordon 

 " boom" was one of them. 



Mr. Blunt may decline to 

 believe the truth. He has often 

 done so before, and he may do 

 so again. The right to be a 

 mortal fool, says the American 

 humourist, bekng^ to every 

 creature human. But Mr. Blun. 

 sometimes presumes too much 

 upon the e.xercise of this ii.- 

 alienable right. 



\VH.\T .ARE THE F.\CTS? 



The question is not one of 

 probability, vast or otherwise. 

 It is one of fact. Both the 

 persons implicated are alive. 

 Neither Lord Esher nor Mr. 

 Stead can be accused of having 

 any motive to conceal the 

 truth. There would have been 

 nothitig dishonourable in Mr. 

 Stead receiving a hint from 

 Mr. Brett. Every newspai)er 

 editor must, as a matter of 

 duty, seek information from all reliable sources. But, 

 as a simple fact, Mr. Stead did not receive any hint, 

 suggestion, or communication from Mr. Brett, for the 

 simple and sufficient reason that he was first brought 

 into communication with Mr. Brett two weeks after 

 the Ciordon interview took place. The fact is only 

 of importance as showing the utter unlru.stworthiness 

 of Mr. Blunt's judgment. If he ventures to con- 

 struct a mare's-nest like this out of such flimsy 

 materials which people on the spot can demolish in a 

 moment, who can place any limits upon the Arabian 

 Night's romances which his ingenious but perverse 

 imagination is capable of weaving out of what his 

 stiiiinl eyed vision imagines to be facts when they 

 relate to dead men in distant lands ? 



That Mr. Stead invented the idea of sending 

 Gordon to Khartoum no one ever claimed, least of 

 all Mr. Stead himself. Mr. Stead's claim is that while 



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