Somaliland.

Manawatu Herald, 25 October 1902, Page 2

Somaliland.

A private letter received from an officer on Colonel Swayne’s staff, written from Paio after the recent retreat, indicates that the force is “in a frightful fix,” having sustained many losses. There had been several stiff fights at the time the letter was written, and the column was encumbered with wounded.

The blacks were showing “ funk,” most of the camels liad been killed or captured, water was scarce, and there were no supplies of food, and little amnnition.

The Mullah had captured two of the British Maxim guns.

The Bombay Grenadiers are sailing from Aden for Somaliland. Sir extra officers are joining the First Bombays at Aden, going to Berbera, They will be followed by the Second Bombay Grenadiers from Mhow, and by six officers and four hundred men from the Twenty-third Bombay Infantry. Erego, the scene of Colonel Swayne’s disastrous encounter with the Somalis, is in Italian territory, beyond the southern border of the British Somaliland Protectorate.

Any tidings of Colonel Swayne must be transmitted along a line of posts from Bohotoleh to Berbera, and thence by steamer to Aden. The Britiah Government professes ignorance as to the disasters to Colonel Swayne’s column described in the letter from one of the colonel’s stall that has found' publicity, in which the force was said to be in “ a frightful fix,” being encumbered with wounded; also that the native auxiliaries showed “funk,” water food and ammunition were scarce, and two Maxim guns had been captured.

The letter said to be from an officer attached to Colonel Swayne’a

staff was a hoax perpetrated by some barristers on the “ Daily News ” because several newspapers complained of the Government’s reticence.

“ The Times ” recommends for the thorough quashing of the Mullah that operations should be entrusted to the Indian army, as in China. A hundred Soudanese troops and a hundred Sikhs stationed at Mombassa have been ordered to Berbera.

Four Maxsra guns accompany the Bombays.