Beschreibung:

GORDON, Charles G.] WOLSELEY, Col. Garnet (1833-1913). Autograph telegram signed ("Wolseley") to General Gordon, Hotel Bellevue, Brussels, n.d., with clerical notation in blue pencil at top left corner: "Dispatched 17/1/84." 1 page, War Office stationery, slight tears at creases . [ With, on verso :] Autograph draft telegraph signed ("Wolseley") to Hopkins, 17 January 1884. THE FATEFUL SUMMONS TO LONDON: GORDON'S ORDERS FOR KHARTOUM Urgent messages flow from the pen of Col. Wolseley to Gordon in Brussels, and to his secretary: "Come here at once," begins the telegram to Gordon. "Can you start this evening so as to be with me early tomorrow-telegraph at once saying hour tomorrow I may expect you." Turning the page over, he instructs his secretary Hopkins: "Send this off at once. You have General Gordon's address. I only write it from memory. Send the following also at once: To British Minister-Brussels. I have telegraphed Gordon telling him to come here at once. He may not be in when telegram reaches: will you kindly send for him wherever he may be & tell him he will find telegram at hotel desiring him to start for London by quickest route." Gordon was negotiating with the Belgian King over a possible appointment as governor of the Congo. He immediately heeded Wolseley's summons, returning to England the same day as the telegram, and attended an urgent meeting with Wolseley, Gladstone, and the Cabinet on the 18th. He set sail for the Sudan that very night, never to return to England.