Khartoum Page #2

to call their own.

What does he do now...

now that they've captured

10,000 Remington rifles...

five batteries of artillery...

and very nearly five million

rounds of ammunition?

And I must add

what will become of Egypt...

if the Mahdi occupies Khartoum

and the Khartoum arsenal?

What a jolly day you'll have

with Her Majesty tomorrow.

Gentlemen,

let me make one thing clear.

I'm sending no armies

up the Nile.

You, Hartington,

your imperialist friends...

you're looking for any excuse

to move into central Africa.

We are discussing Egypt.

We have a moral responsibility

to Egypt.

A moral responsibility.

We have the Suez Canal.

Say it.

Egypt protects Suez.

We protect Egypt.

Why in heaven's name

can't Egypt protect herself?

We've just heard

from Colonel Stewart.

She's not up to it.

Colonel Stewart?

I've no doubt

he's like the rest of you.

He can see himself

leading a British army...

1,600 miles up the Nile,

flags flying, glory for all.

I beg your pardon, sir.

Before I'd accept

such a command...

I'd resign my commission.

I wouldn't spend

one British life...

to oppose the Mahdi,

not in the Sudan.

I assumed you were

for intervention.

You didn't ask my opinion, sir.

Well, I want it, by heaven,

if it agrees with mine.

Gentlemen, I shall suggest...

to Her Majesty

in Scotland tomorrow...

that we shall discharge

our obligations to Egypt...

by evacuating all

the Egyptians from Khartoum.

How, without either

a British army...

or loss of British honor?

I shall entertain suggestions

as to just how.

Gordon.

Chinese Gordon.

What's Gordon doing now?

He's made a contract with

the king of the Belgians...

to take over the Congo

from Mr. Stanley.

We can arrange that

with Brussels.

Send Gordon to Khartoum.

The man who led

the Chinese Emperor's armies...

to victory after victory

carrying only a cane...

send him to Khartoum.

- Without an army?

- Gordon doesn't need an army.

Yes, remember, without

a single British soldier...

he ended slavery in the Sudan.

He's a hero...

to the Sudanese...

to the English,

to the anti-slavery people...

to the churchmen.

Send him to Khartoum,

and you'll be applauded...

from Land's End to Inverness...

and Her Majesty.

Granville,

you're wasting my time.

The man's a mystic.

He's an idealist...

with ideals strictly his own.

Give him an instruction,

he treats a military order...

as if it were

a birthday greeting.

Besides, I trust no man

who consults God...

before he consults me.

May I speak, sir?

In my opinion,

General Gordon would refuse.

After all,

when he went to the Sudan...

as Governor General

and put down the slave trade...

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