AT the very outset we expressed our disapproval of the proposal to erect a hospital at Port Said as a memorial to the late General Gordon. On Saturday it was in effect formally announced, at a meeting of the Mansion House Committee, that the scheme had been abandoned. Why such a Bite should ever Lave been suggested for a hospital by any disinterested person it is impossible to discover. The land which has been offered for this purpose, apart from the absurdity of selecting such a country as the place for an expensive memorial to one of England's heroes, is open to every objection which can be imagined. The proximity of the pestiferous snore of Lake Mensal would of itself render the erection of a refuge for sick people, on the spot offered by the Suez Canal Company, one of the wildest breaches of the laws of sanitation that could be committed. The whole condition of the soil, as is pointed out in the report preseated yesterday, is suggestive of deadly peril to the inmates of such an institution as it was proposed to found in memory of the heroic soldier whose life was a continued record, all too short, of the good lie tried to do to others. Cesspools abound, and there is not the slightest prospect \ of the evil becoming abated. On the contrary, it is likely, it seems, to increase. The very water supply is uncertain is its quantity, while there is no doubt as to its quality being inferior to what would be essential for invalids. Even the area of ground is too restricted, besides being enclosed. Added to all this there is hard by an ever-increasing population whose habits of living are certainly not conducive to health. When Sir John Cowell asked on Saturday if anybody present would venture to accept the responsibility of becoming trustees for "a national memorial" such as had been proposed at Port Said, whether on the site we have indicated or anywhere else in the neighbourhood, he could have expected only One reply. The idea of erecting a memorial hospital in a foreign land with funds collected at home, has, we hope, been abandoned for ever. At all events, not a voice was raised at the meeting in question in favour of Port Said. The Prince of Wales, who consented many weeks ago to propose a resolution in favour of the town in question, gave expression, we can hardly doubt, to the sentiments of everyone present on Saturday, when he said that the scheme could not with any propriety be carried out. Suggestions are now invited as to the best way of expending the funds available, amounting to sixteen thousand pounds, in commemorating the honoured name of Gordon. We stated, when the first meeting in connection with this memorial was held, that the suggestion of Port Said for it would probably check the flow of subscriptions, and go it has proved, for the sum mentioned is but a small one for what is intended to be a "national memorial." The selection of a site at home would most likely revive the nagging interest in the undertaking.
Daily Chronicle, June 1, 1885
The Gordon Memorial
The Volunteer Manoeuvres
Table of Contents
Miracles of healing - Christian Miracles or Healing
History of Russia: Christian Versus Barbarian
History of Japan: Early Christian Martyrs
The Jesus of History
The Assyrian Origin of Devil Worshippers
The Christ Of Dogma
The early history of Constantinople
