The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-08-18 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE CHOLERA IN EGYPT.  The Alexandria Correspondent of The Times, writing on August 31, says :—Last night, in a low Arab quarter of Alexandria, a native woman missed her husband, and applied for him at the Government Ambulance, where five out of six patients have died. She was allowed to see that he was not there, and she began crying loudly. The native popu• lation then raised a cry that all the persons who entered there were murdered with disinfectants. A crowd of about four hundred gathered, who stoned the ambulance building. The sole patient remaining there escaped. The doc Ors sent for assistance. Two English military police, who were passing, charged and dispersed the crowd, one of the police being wounded with a stone. The crowd afterwards reassembled, and began tearing down the am' ulance, but, English troops arriving, order was EOM restored.  The following telegrams have been received at the War Office :  "From the General Officer Commandinv in Egypt to the Secretary of State for War. Dated Cairo,  Aug. 11. "No fresh cases of cholera at Cairo, Helonitn, or Suez, and toose undsr treatment doing well. One fresh case occurred and died yesterday at El Wardan. He was a patient suffering from diarrtice for four days previously at Ramie!). There have been two fresh cases, both patients under treatment for other diseases. Troops in quarters there and at Alexandria remain unaffected. "The following deaths from cholera have been reported : "In telegram dated August 10—No. 79, Private Walter Fox, Cornwall Regiment. "In telegram dated August 11—No. 4,732 William Place Chambers, Army Hospital Corps. " August 12.—Satisfactory reports from all stations. No fresh cars of cholera. General health of tro ,ps good. Royal Sussex, at Ismailia, have only 15 ordinary sick in hospital ; the Black Watch, at Suez, only 11; and Rifles, 12 ; two batteries of Artillery, Hussars, and Mounted Infantry, at El Wardan only 22. Total average sick to strength in whole cotnroafff 9 47. Ono death of cholera at Cairo, attacked on July 25. No. 747, Private Benjamin Butterworth, Gordons."  The Daily Telegraph in a leader says :—The Egyptian epidemic is happily abating, and, in place of deliberations on the best method of dealing with it, we have left to us only the more pleasant task of congratulating the officers and men of our army of occupation on the skill, the discipline, the unflagging energy, and col courage which have marked their successful struggle with its ravages. Nothing, indeed, could he more creditable to their resource and organising faculty than the accounts that have reached us from time to time of the fears which they have performed in this most deadly kind of warfare—feats rendered all the more difficult from the tact t> at they have been accomplished among a people disposed both by natural temr.erament and religious prejudice to thwart rather than resist the humane efforts of their helpers. It is hardly too much to say that most of the Egyptians who owe their preservation from death to the eff rtsi of our soldiery have been saved against their will. Even in such a matter as the use of ambulances, our soldiers have had to encounter and override the superstitions of the Mohammedan population among whom they were working ; while the very u=s ot the disillectants employed to prevent the spread of contagion has been resented on pleas o childish absurdity. In spite of all these obstacles, however, there can be no doubt that the labours of the English army of occupation have been the means of saving many thousands of lives.