ABSTRACT

When the parliamentary session began in 1885 time was running out for Gladstone. With Wolseley’s failure to relieve Khartoum, and the death there of the nation’s hero General Charles Gordon, the government was doomed. The Sudan apart, various imperial matters commanded Gorst’s attention. In the Commons for instance he seemed worried that part of British New Guinea might be taken over by private German colonisers. A few days later, inconsistently some thought, he was suggesting that Heligoland, British since 1807, should be handed over to Germany; the island, he said, was of no ‘mercantile or strategic value to Britain’ and cost the taxpayer money to maintain. 1 A few eyebrows were raised at this proposal, which was not as outrageous as it seemed for the island was ceded to Germany five years later.