The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-09-20 00:00:00

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EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

The following telegrams have been received th tough
Reuter's Agency:
SUAKIN, Sept. 16.
Twenty of the Suakin police and 50 men of the
Amarar tribe, with 40 rifles, while escorting a convoy
of supplies and 30 women, were yesterday attacked at
Sheiks Barghout by 200 Hadend.owas, some on horse-
back and others on foot. A messenger came in last
night to beg for reinforcements, and another arrived
this morning with a similar request. Major Chermside
sent off 100 men last night to assist the Amarars,
who, however, in the meantime, gained a complete
victory, which was mainly owing to the efforts of the
police. Osman Digma's nephew and 60 Hadendowas
were killed. The loss of the Amarars in killed and
wounded was 20. They captured a quantity of booty
and 19 horses, mules, and camels. The police escorted
the women to Suakin unarmed.

CAIRO, Sept. 16.
Lord Wolseley has ordered a camel corps to be
formed, of detachments of equal strength, from the
three Household Cavalry Regiments and sixteen
other cavalry regiments in England, as well as from
the seven battalions of the Guards. The strength of
each detachment is to be two officers and forty-four
rank and file, or 1100 in all. They are to be formed
into three divisions; the first to consist of heavy
cavalry, the second of light cavalry, and the third of
Guards.

In the event of the British expedition proceeding
up the Nile, it is proposed to send eight battalions as
far as Berber, two guarding the line of communica-
tions. Of these eight battalions three will remain at
Berber and five will push on to Khartoum.
The statement published in the papers this morning
that at the request of Lord Wolseley the War Office
had decided to despatch 3000 additional troops to
Egypt for strengthening the British forces in that
country, is incorrect. .

MALTA, Sept. 16.
The Ist Battalion Shropshire Regiment and the
2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment have been
ordered to be ready early next month to proceed to
Egypt. The hired transport Engineer sailed to-day
for Gibraltar. The transport Camel has arrived here
from Port Said, and the Dunluce from London.

On Tuesday about 40 troopers of the Royal Horse
Guards, who, under the command of Colonel Burnaby,
are quartered at Windsor, were detained for service
with the camel corps. The 3rd Battalion Grenadier
Guards, Colonel Phillips, paraded at four o'clock on
Tuesday afternoon at the Victoria Barracks, Windsor,
and on volunteers for Egypt being asked for about
500 soldiers responded to the call. The draft, which
consists of two officers and 43 non-commissioned
officers and men, is expected to leave on the 24th
inst, for the East.

With the additional reinforcements now ordered to
proceed to Egypt, the strength of the British forces
in that country will be raised to nearly 15,000 men,
the greatest number that has been in that country
since the conclusion of the 1882 campaign. The
cavalry, however, even with the reinforcements of the
projected expedition, will be considerably less than
in the 1882 Campaign, which included three Indian
cavalry corps, there being at present only one cavalry
regiment, the 19th Hussars, in Egypt. This, how-
ever, will be made up to some extent by the strong
body of mounted infantry on camels, which is now
well on its way to the front, and when the camel
corps is completed nothing will be wanting in this
respect to render the expeditionary force complete.
With these reinforcements it is not considered pro-
bable that any portion of the Egyptian army will be
utilised in the campaign further than to assist in
guarding the lines of communication and for kindred
duties.

The Secretary of State for War having received
from the Lords of the Admiralty the memorial of
the watermen and lightermen of the Thames, offer-
ing their services for the Nile Expedition, has for-
warded an acknowledgment in which he regrets that,
after referring the matter to Lord Wolseley, he finds
that it will not be possible to accept their offer.