1 October 1993
2
3 The Fashoda Affair (1898) -- French-English Relations in Africa
4 Sir Herbert Kitchener's Assessment ofConditions at Fashoda
5
6 ......edited by Marijan Salopek
7
8 ===================================
9 Letter from Mr. Rodd to the Marquess of Salisbury relaying Sir
10 Herbert Kitchener's Report dated 21 September 1898
11
12 F.O. Turkey (Egypt) 4960. Cairo, D. September 25, 1898.
13 Tel. (No. 244) P. R. September 25, 1898.
14
15 I received the following telegram this morning from Sir
16 Herbert Kitchener: --
17
18 "I have just returned here from Fashoda where I
19 found Captain Marchand, accompanied by eight officers
20 and 120 men, located in the old Government buildings,
21 over which they had hoisted the French flag; I sent a
22 letter announcing my approach the day before my arrival
23 at Fashoda. A small rowboat carrying the French flag
24 brought me a reply from Captain Marchand on the
25 following morning, the 19th September, stating that he
26 had reached Fashoda on the 10th July, his Government
27 having given him instructions to occupy the Bahr-el-
28 Ghazal as far as the confluence of the Bahr-el-Jebel,
29 as well as the Shilluk country on the left bank of the
30 White Nile as far as Fashoda. He stated that he had
31 concluded a Treaty with the Chief of the Shilluk tribe,
32 whereby the latter placed his country under the
33 protection of France, and that he had sent this Treaty
34 to his Government for ratification by way of Abyssinia,
35 as well as by the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Captain Marchand
36 described the fight which he had had with the Dervishes
37 on the 25th August, and said that, in anticipation of a
38 second and more severe attack, he had sent his steamer
39 south for reinforcements, but our arrival had averted
40 the danger.
41 "When we arrived at Fashoda, Captain Marchand and
42 M. Germain came on board, and I at once stated that the
43 presence of a French force at Fashoda and in the Valley
44 of the Nile was regarded as a direct infringement of
45 the rights of the Egyptian Government and of that of
46 Great Britain, and I protested in the strongest terms
47 against their occupation of Fashoda and their hoisting
48 the French flag in the dominions of His Highness the
49 Khedive. In reply, Captain Marchand stated that he had
50 precise orders to occupy the country and to hoist the
51 French flag over the Government buildings at Fashoda,
52 and that it was impossible for him to retire without
53 receiving orders from his Government to that effect,
54 but he did not expect that these orders would be
55 delayed. On my pressing him to say whether, seeing
56 that I had a preponderating force, he was prepared to
57 resist the hoisting of the Egyptian flag at Fashoda, he
58 hesitated and replied that resistance was impossible.
59 I then caused the flag to be hoisted on a ruined
60 bastion of the old Egyptian fortifications about 500
61 yards south of the French flag, and on the only road
62 which leads to the interior from the French position,
63 which is surrounded by impassable marshes on all sides.
64 Before leaving for the south, I handed to Captain
65 Marchand a formal protest in writing, on behalf of the
66 British and Egyptian Governments, against any
67 occupation by France of any part of the Nile Valley,
68 such occupation being an infringement of the rights of
69 these Governments which I could not recognise.
70 "I appointed Major Jackson to be Commandant of the
71 Fashoda district, where I left a garrison consisting of
72 one Soudanese battalion, four guns, and a gun-boat,
73 after which I proceeded to the Sobat, where, on the
74 20th September, a post was established and the flag
75 hoisted. We neither saw nor heard anything of the
76 Abyssinians on the Sobat River, but we were told that
77 their nearest post was situated some 350 miles further
78 up. The Bahr-el-Jebel is completely blocked by the
79 'sudd,' and in consequence I ordered a gun-boat to
80 patrol up the Bahr-el-Ghazal towards Meshra-er-Rek. On
81 my way north, as I passed Fashoda, I sent a letter to
82 Captain Marchand, stating that all transport of war
83 material on the Nile was absolutely prohibited, as the
84 country was under military law. The Shilluk Chief,
85 with a large following, has come into Major Jackson's
86 camp; the whole tribe are delighted to return to their
87 allegiance to us, and the Chief absolutely denies
88 having made any Treaty with the French.
89 "The position in which Captain Marchand finds
90 himself at Fashoda is as impossible as it is absurd.
91 He is cut off from the interior, and his water
92 transport is quite inadequate; he is, moreover, short
93 of ammunition and supplies, which must take months to
94 reach him; he has no following in the country, and
95 nothing could have saved him and his expedition from
96 being annihilated by the Dervishes had we been a
97 fortnight later in crushing the Khalifa.
98 "The futility of all their efforts is fully
99 realised by Captain Marchand himself, and he seems
100 quite as anxious to return as we are to facilitate his
101 departure. In his present position he is powerless,
102 but I hope that Her Majesty's Government will take the
103 necessary steps for his removal as soon as possible, as
104 the presence of a French force and flag on the Nile is
105 manifestly extremely undesirable.
106 "Captain Marchand only lost four natives on the
107 journey, and his expedition is all well.
108 "I am sending a complete despatch by Lord Edward
109 Cecil, who is leaving with it for Cairo at once."
110
111 Source:
112 G. P. Gooch and Harold Temperley, eds., (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1927),
115 pp. 167-8.
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