[Speech of Robert Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury, at a banquet given
in honor of Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, by the Lord Mayor of
London, Right Hon. Horatio David Davies, at the Mansion House,
London, November 4, 1898.]
MY LORD MAYOR, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS, AND
GENTLEMEN:--The task has been placed in my hands of proposing the
toast of the evening: "The Health of the Sirdar." [Loud cheers.] It is
the proud prerogative of this city that, without any mandate from the
Constitution, without any legal sanction it yet has the privilege of
sealing by its approval the reputation and renown of the great men whom
this country produces; and the honors which it confers are as much
valued and as much desired as any which are given in this country.
[Cheers.] It has won that position not because it has been given to it,
but because it has shown discrimination and earnestness and because it
has united the suffrage of the people in the approval of the course that
it has taken and of the honors it has bestowed. [Cheers.] My Lord Mayor,
it is in reference to that function which you have performed to-day and
the most brilliant reception which has been accorded to the Sirdar that
I now do your bidding and propose his health. [Cheers.] But if the task
would be in any circumstances arduous and alarming, it is much more so
because all that can be said in his behalf has already been said by more
eloquent tongues than mine. I have little hope that I can add anything
to the picture that has been already drawn [allusion to previous
speeches made by the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord
Rosebery], but no one can wonder at the vast enthusiasm by which the
career of this great soldier has been received in this city. It is not
merely his own personal qualities that have achieved it. It is also the
strange dramatic interest of the circumstances, and the conditions under
which his laurels have been won. [Cheers.]
It has been a long campaign, the first part of which we do not look back
to with so much pleasure because we had undertaken a fearful task
without a full knowledge of the conditions we had to satisfy or the real
character of the foes to whom we were opposed. ["Hear! Hear!"] The
remembrance of that heroic figure whose virtues and whose death are
impressed so deeply upon the memory of the whole of the present
generation of Englishmen, the vicissitudes of those anxious campaigns in
which the most splendid deeds of gallantry were achieved are yet fresh
in the minds of the English people and Lord Rosebery has not exaggerated
when he has said that the debt was felt deeply in the mind of every
Englishman, however little they might talk of it at the time and when
the opportunity arrived with what eagerness, in spite of any possible
discouragement--with what eagerness the opportunity was seized.
[Cheers.] It was a campaign--the campaign which your gallant guest has
won--it was a campaign marked by circumstances which have seldom marked
a campaign in the history of the world. [Cheers.] I suppose that
wonderful combination of all achievements and discoveries of modern
science, in support of the gallantry and well-tried strategy of a
British leader--I suppose these things have not been seen in our history
before. [Cheers.] But the note of this campaign was that the Sirdar not
only won the battles which he was set to fight, but he furnished himself
the instruments by which they were won, or rather, I should say, he was
the last and perhaps by the nature of the circumstances the most
efficient of a list of distinguished men whose task it has been to
rescue the Egyptian army from inefficiency and contempt in order to put
it on the pinnacle of glory it occupies now. [Cheers.]
I remember in our debates during that terrible campaign of 1884-85 a
distinguished member of the Government of that day observing with
respect to Egyptian troops that they were splendid soldiers if only
they would not run away. [Laughter.]
It was a quaint way of putting it, but it was very accurate. They had
splendid physique; they had great fidelity and loyalty to their chiefs;
they had many of the qualities of the soldier, but like men who had been
recruited under the slave whip, and who had been accustomed to the
methods of despotism, they had not that courage which can only be
obtained by freedom and by united military training. [Cheers.] What they
lacked has been supplied to them, and the Egyptian army, as it has
issued from the hands of Sir Evelyn Wood, Sir Francis Grenfell, and the
Sirdar, is a magnificent specimen of the motive power of the English
leader. [Cheers.] We do not reflect on it, yet if we have any interest
in the administrative processes that go on in various parts of the
Empire we cannot help being impressed by the fact that numbers on
numbers of educated young men, who at home, in this country, would show
no very conspicuous qualities except those we are accustomed to look for
in an English gentleman, yet, if thrown on their own resources, and
bidden to govern and control and guide large bodies of men of another
race, they never or hardly ever fall short of the task which has been
given to them; but they will make of that body of promising material
splendid regiments by which the Empire of England is extended and
sustained. [Cheers.]
It is one of the great qualities of the Sirdar that he has been able to
direct the races that are under him, to make them effective and loyal
soldiers, to attach them to himself, and insure their good conduct in
the field of battle. [Cheers.] He has many other qualities upon which I
might dilate if time permitted. Lord Cromer, who I am glad to see Lord
Rosebery noted as one who ought to have his full share in any honors you
confer on those who have built up Egyptian prosperity, who is one of the
finest administrators the British race has ever produced--Lord Cromer is
in the habit of saying that the Sirdar has almost missed his vocation,
and that if he was not one of the first generals in the world, he would
be one of the first Chancellors of the Exchequer. [Laughter and cheers.]
I daresay many people think it a small thing that a soldier should be
able to save money [laughter], but it is not so if you will only
conceive for yourselves the agony of mind with which in former times the
Chancellors of the Exchequer or financial members of the Council have
received from time to time accounts of brilliant victories, knowing all
the time what a terrible effect upon the ultimate balance of the budget
those victories will entail. [Laughter.] It is a hazardous thing to say,
but I am almost inclined to believe that the Sirdar is the only general
that has fought a campaign for £300,000 less than he originally promised
to do it. [Laughter.] It is a very great quality, and if it existed more
generally, I think that terror which financiers entertain of soldiers,
and that contempt which soldiers entertain for financiers would not be
so frequently felt. ["Hear! Hear!" and laughter.]
Well, then, the Sirdar has another great quality: he is a splendid
diplomatist. It would require talents of no small acuteness and
development to enable him to carry to so successful a result as he did
that exceedingly delicate mission up the Nile which conducted him into
the presence of Major Marchand. The intercourse of that time has ended
apparently in the deepest affection on both sides [laughter]--certainly
in the most unrestricted and unstinted compliments and expressions of
admiration and approval. I think these things show very much for the
diplomatic talents of the Sirdar. He recently expressed his hope that
the differences which might have arisen from the presence of Major
Marchand would not transcend the powers of diplomacy to adjust. I am
glad to say that up to a certain point he has proved a true prophet.
[Cheers.] I received from the French Ambassador this afternoon the
information that the French Government had come to the conclusion that
the occupation of Fashoda was of no sort of value to the French
Republic. [Loud cheers and some laughter.] And they thought that in the
circumstances to persist in an occupation which only cost them money and
did them harm merely because some bad advisers thought it might be
disagreeable to an unwelcome neighbor, would not show the wisdom by
which I think the French Republic has been uniformly guided, and they
have done what I believe the government of any other country would have
done, in the same position--they have resolved that that occupation must
cease. [Cheers.] A formal intimation of that fact was made to me this
afternoon and it has been conveyed to the French authorities at Cairo. I
believe that the fact of that extremely difficult juxtaposition between
the Sirdar and Major Marchand has led to a result which is certainly
gratifying and, to some extent, unexpected; and that it is largely due
to the chivalrous character and diplomatic talents which the Sirdar
displayed on that occasion. [Cheers.] I do not wish to be understood as
saying that all causes of controversy are removed by this between the
French Government and ourselves. It is probably not so, and I daresay we
shall have many discussions in the future; but a cause of controversy of
a somewhat acute and dangerous character has been removed and we cannot
but congratulate ourselves upon that. [Cheers.]
I will only say that alike in his patient and quiet forethought, lasting
over three years, in his brilliant strategy on the field of battle, in
his fearless undertaking of responsibility and his contempt of danger,
and last but not least in the kindness and consideration which he
displayed for men who were for a moment in a position of antagonism to
himself--in these things he has shown a combination of the noblest
qualities which distinguish the race to which he belongs and by the
exercise of which the high position of England in this generation in the
world and in her great Empire has been won. [Loud cheers.]