Page:A Prisoner of the Khaleefa.djvu/389

316 no graver military crime than did the commander of the troops on board the Birkenhead, when, instead of seeing first to the safety of the soldiers for whose lives he was responsible, he placed the women and children in the boats which could have saved the troops, and called upon his men to present arms as the boats left the side of the ship — and to stand to attention as the vessel sank under them. So much for British principle, apart from Christ's teachings, in peace and war; now for the facts in Gordon's case.

When Gordon arrived in Khartoum, he found wandering — hungry and helpless — the thousands of widows and orphans of the soldiers who a few months before constituted Hicks Pasha's army. Throughout his journals you will discover constant reference to the food question, with accounts of his successful search for the stolen biscuits, which had "enormously reduced" the supplies in the hands of the Government. Gordon had calculated that the relieving army would reach him at the beginning of November, so that we find him writing on the 2nd of that month that he has six weeks' food supplies. In making this estimate he was allowing for full rations to the troops (who were also in receipt of the money with which to buy those rations), and the wants of the poor. On the 11th of that month he discovers nearly a million pounds of stolen biscuits. On the 21st he writes, "I do not believe one person has died of hunger during the months we have been shut up." On December 14 — that is a month after the latest date he had estimated for the arrival of the relief expedition, he