KHARTOUM CAIHEDRAL FUND. [To THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—The building of the Anglican Cathedral in Khartoum cannot be finished for want of funds, and although some £16,000 has already been subscribed, there still remains £12,000 to be collected before the sacred edifice can be finished.
Every other creed in Khartoum now has its place of worship. The Mosque, the finest building, and rightly so in a Moslem country, was finished several years ago. The Coptic Cathedral was finished some two years ago, as also was the handsome Greek Church. The Presbyterian (American) Church was completed about a year ago, while the Roman Catholics have all along had a temporary Church and are now building a Cathedral. Alone the Church of England, and, I may add, the Church of Gordon's faith, is unrepresented. It is felt that, with the flag of England floating over the town alongside the Star and Crescent, it is a matter of national importance that the faith of our land should be represented by a suitable sacred edifice, more especially as Khartoum will ever be connected with our national hero, Gordon.
Some have cavilled at the sum asked for, and others that missionaries were discouraged at the start in the Sudan. It is not realised by these that the Moslem is willing to give a good deal to his faith, and if he sees the Englishman by whom he is governed satisfied with only a small insignificant church his conclusion is that the Englishman does not set much store by his religion. A Mohammedan, it is true, dislikes a Christian, but he abhors an atheist.
Missionaries had to be discouraged in those parts of the Sudan which are Mohammedan, and, as any one who has had experience of Moslem countries knows, there is nothing more endangering to the very lives of Christian residents, especially in a fanatical country, than to attempt proselytising among Mohammedans and treating them as heathens.
I only venture to put these facts before you as having been Governor of Khartoum from 1900 to 1909. and the first Church Warden of Khartoum, and I cannot help feeling, as the Bishop of London remarked in his sermon in Westminster Abbey, that it is a slur on our nationality and faith that the church in Khartoum has not been completed ere this,—a slur, I feel sure, that has only to be broukht to the notice of the British public to be remedied.
Every shilling subscribed will mean a stone added to the memory of Gordon. Surely in the British Isles there must be a sufficient number of people willing and able to contribute the sum of £12,000 in shillings and upwards on this the twenty-fifth anniversary of Gordon's death. Mr. A. D. Acland, 186 Strand, W.C., the honorary treasurer of the fund, will acknowledge all donations in the Standard.—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. A. STANTON (Major), Glenmore House, Wraysbury, Bucks. Hon. Secretary.
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