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468 Lord Granville stated in Parliament that "the government was in no way responsible for the operations which had been undertaken on the authority of the Egyptian government, or for the appointment of General Hicks." When the news of the annihilation of Hicks Pasha's army reached England there was great excitement, and the government felt called upon to do something to extricate the garrisons of Khartoum, Kassala, Berber, and other places that were besieged by the Mahdi's forces, as his fanatical followers would not be likely to spare any lives in case of success, and, least of all, the lives of any foreigners in the Egyptian service. In its emergency the government appealed to General Charles G. Gordon, better known as "Chinese" Gordon, to aid in the solution of the difficult problem. Gordon had been living in the Holy Land for several months, and had just been invited by the king of the Belgians to go to the Congo and assume command of the Congo Free State, which Stanley had organized. He reached Brussels on New Year's day, 1884, completed his arrangements with King Leopold, and then started for the Congo. On the 16th January, while on his way, a telegram from London called him to start at once for Khartoum, to settle the affairs there. He reached London on the morning of the 18th, and left on the evening of the same day for Egypt. The Soudan was familiar ground to General Gordon, as he had been its governor-general from 1877 to 1880, in the service of Ismail, Khedive of Egypt. From 1874 to 1877 he was Governor-General of the Equator, so that he passed altogether six years in the regions of the Upper Nile. During the period of his administration, he did much to improve the condition of the people, and their regard for him was so great, that the British government had good reason to believe that he could make terms with the Mahdi, and secure the safe retreat of the garrisons of