The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-07 00:00:00

THE EXPEDITION 70 ABYSSINIA.

BACKWARDNESS IN THE PREPARATIONS.

The Times special correspondent, writing from Annesley
13ay, on January 18, says :—" Notwithstanding all

exertions, I cannot say that, up to the present moment,

much progress appears to have been made, though there
is reason to hope the turning point has been reached at
last, and that the Abyssinian force will soon cease to mark
time between Annesley Bay and Send& If the English
public, by this time naturally getting impatient, wonder
at the delay, and consider that the task of carrying so
many tons so many miles is, after all, not such a very
ilifficult one, where no expense and no labour in spared, I
ran only furnish them with one explanation : the
Abyssinian Expedition was in a peculiar degree one in
which success depended upon a good start, and un-
Luckily the start was a very bad one. As the force had
to land on a waterless and barren coast and to carry a
large stock of food and forage sixty miles up a mountain
pus, it was obviously an all-important consideration
—first, that the commissariat should not have to feed
one man or beast more than the lowest number
absolutely required for the conveyance and protection of
this stock ; and, secondly, that the number thus employed
should be in the highest state of efficiency. Even under
these favourable circumstances, the undertaking is one
about as arduous as an army could be well called on to
face—probably a more arduous one than any army has
ever yet successfully got through. If a mule, which bears
a load of 1501 b. exclusive of equipments, and eats 131 b.
a day, has to carry what it eats a difficult journey of 60
miles and back, it cannot carry much besides. It requires
an immense number of animals working on these condi-
tions to accumulate a reserve in anything like reasonable
time. But when the animal, in addition to supplying its
own food, has to keep up a constant supply for other
animals, which contribute themselves nothing to the
general stock, the commissariat are puzzled to find provi-
sions enough even for immediate use, far less for future e►ner-
gencies. In an ordinary campaign, where the neighbouring
country supplies provisions, an animal unemployed deprives
the force merely of his own services, but here he also
deprives it of the services of the animal employed to carry
food for him. In an ordinary campaign, again, the loss of
a week does not necessarily involve any further loss worth
taking into serious consideration ; here the loss of a week
means the consumption in idleness of a week's supply oat
of the stock which it has taken so much time and labour
to get together, and which is wanted to support active
operations against an enemy. In such an expedition as
the Abyssinian, the great bulk of the fighting force—every
soldier, in fact, not wanted for a baggage-guard—
should not appear on the scene of operations
until the commissariat has got together all the
supplies it wants, and it should then appear
fully prepared to march against the enemy. This
is, no doubt, an ideal standard of perfection far more
easily put forward than attained ; but, unluckily, in our
Abyssinian expedition there has not been even an approach
made to it. So far from getting ahead of our fighting
force, and being in a position to lay up a reserve stock for
it, the commissariat has had a hard struggle to keep it
living on from day to clay, from hand to mouth. Now
and then there has been a positive scarcity, though not
such as to be severely felt, of provisions required for im-
mediate use, Hence the great difficulty now experienced
in stocking Senaf6, and all the time and labour required
for the task. In round numbers 18,000 men have now ar-
rived here, and of these only some 8,000 are at Annesley
Bay. Food must be carried to the remaining 10,000
5,000 of them being as far off as Senaf4 —before one
pound's weight can be put by as reserve.