f4- General Gordon has once more offered Zebehr Pasha the
Vice- royalty of the Soudan. In form, he proposes to make him Deputy Governor-General, but, of course, on• the departure of the Europeans he would be supreme, and 'might declare him- self independent. Zebehr Pasha has, however, rejected this offer, avowedly on the ground that he would not serve under General Gordon. As General Gordon was aware that the Ministry objected to this arrangement, the offer marks either a determination to go his own way, or a conviction that without Zebehr success is hopeless. According to the correspondent of the Standard at Cairo, the latter is the true explanation. He has, from his previous history, unusual means of access to the
officials, and he telegraphs on Thursday night that General Gordon, while appointing Zebehr," simultaneously telegraphed to Sir Evelyn Baring to the effect that his present position is altogether helpless and hopeless, unless Zebehr be sent imme- diately." That statement, if authentic, is the most serious yet received, but anything less like General Gordon's usual mode of thought can hardly be conceived. He does not rely on the arm of flesh in that style; It is possible that the correspondent, who knows Arabic, received his information from Zebehr, with whom be had been talking, and who assigned to General Gordon his own conviction.
