Nelson Chronicle, Colne Observer, and Clitheroe Division News. — 1898-09-16 (Nelson, Lancashire, England)

FRIDAY. SEPTLMRER 14, UM  THE SOUDAN VICTORY.  THE jubilation with which the nation received the brilliant battle of Omdurman with its equally gratifying complement. the fall of the cruel power of the KHALIIA and his savage Dervishes, has not yet expended itself, notwithstanding the sad cloud which has been cast over the country by the murder of the Empress of ATSTRIA, whoa English people must remember with respect as • by no means infrequent visitor to our . . .  - . shores and as one of our heartiest friends. Viewing the engagement in the light of the fuller narrative. which have been telegraphed during the week, the chief feature appears to be the extraordinary dbroportion of the killed and wounded on our side to the hecatomb of dead left before the redoubtable line in the Dervi.ll attack. Indeed. had not the 21st Lancers delivered their brilliant and ever-to-be-remembered charge upon the overwhelming mass of Arab horse and foot, we might almost have claimed for Sir HERVEIZT KITCHENER a victory as momentous and Lloodleafs as that gained by CLUE at Pla•sey, when the fate of India was decided by a lose of only sixty-three European soldiers. Suffice it to say, however, that no military achievement of modern times has appealed with such force to the sentiment of the nation which, after thirteen years of waiting sees the heroic GORDON avenged. and the ursurper and his remna• t scattered like the dust of the desert. I articularly gratifying are the comments of the Continental journal.. The Italian Preis I unanimously applauds both the plan and the I execution of the campaign, and though perhaps, reminiscent of its Abyssinian diesappotntments, there is something bitter in comparisons, the congratulations of the peninsul, are unmistakable. In France, caught in the impasse of the Dreyfus case, and nervous for her military honour, as well as apprehensive of our future policy on the Upper Nile, comment upon the KHaLira's discomfiture is not so friendly. France doee not, in fact, attempt to blind her eyes to the fact that Khartoum is but • .tep on the ladder of conquest and civilisation. "In "Vienna we are said to have won a new "pawn in the great game of Egyptian "diplomacy, and enlarged our claim upon "the land of the Pharaohs :" while the German newspapers, the Emperor's kindly congratulations notwithstanding, are appreciative of the military aspect of the victory rather than warmly disposed toward the past and present policy of which the destruction of Mabdism was and is only • part. Everything, however, points to a rapprochement in Egypt, and if the rumour prove true that Mr. BALFOUR and Count HATZEELDT have arranged for the devolution of the funds held by the International Tribunal for the benefit of Egypt to the purposes of the campaign, 90 much the better for the mutual feeling of good-will between Great Britian and the German Empire. In the first flush of victory, it is not easy to look ahead and anticipate the many dangers which oppose the linking up of the golden chain of provinces connecting North and South Africa under British rule. But it is something to feel that, whatever may be the eventual benefit of the advance to ourselves from the political point of view, the approach of the "thin red line" and its faithful Soudan's. and Egyptian allies heralds an era of peace to • downtrodden and oppressed people, and promises the blessing of settled government to what may prove not the least fertile and productive of the dominions nominally, if not actually, held as appanages of the British Crown.