THE DISASTER IN SOUDAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1188, 20 December 1883, Page 3

THE DISASTER IN SOUDAN.

The San Francisco mail news contains the following : New York, Nov 22. Notwithstanding tl.e reports to the numbers engaged in the battle between Hicks Pasha and El Mahdi, the military correspondents of English papers have written that on September Bth Hicks Pasha marched out of Khartoum with 7000 regular infantry, COO cavalry, of which 100 were cuirassiers and the remainder Bashi Bazouks. En route toObeid, Hicks Pasha was to be reinforced with 1600 regulars and 1000 additional B»shi Bazouks, mnking his total command only about 10,000. After leaving the Nile for El Obeid some eight posts were to be established to keep up the line of communication, which would require a total detail of nearly 3000 men, leaving 7000 available forces to meet 20.000 men reported to follow PA Mahdi. A piominent Sheikh, under El Mahdi, in September claimed that his forces numbered 20,000; that they had Remington guns and rockets which they had taken from the Turks, but that El Mahdi had forbidden their use. Only spears and swords were to be used by fighting men. Nov. 23.

Colonel Cettogan, who was with Hicks Pasha, has telegraphed from Khartou") to General Evelyn Wood that the whole country has risen. Government has asked Baker Pasha to send 1000 gendarmes to Souakim to help to clear the desert, but he has refused to send them, thinking they were required in Upper Egypt. It is stated Turkey offered to send 20,000 tioojps to re-establish Mussulman authority in Soudan. Intense excitement prevails everywhere in Egypt. The country is not safe above the second cataract of the Nile.

Paris, Nov. 23. Le Temps says that a Frenchman named Souiller organised the force of El Mahdi. The French Press now express delight at the defeat ot Picks Pasha. It is said the success of El Mahdi in Egypt threatens the English Indian Empire, and France, by the progress of events, will be called upon to resume her position io Egypt. London, Nov. 23.

The Times says Mr Gladstone and his colleagues must understand that England will hold them answerable if by any further errors of judgment Egypt is allowed to relapse into anarchy, aggravated by the passions of religious fanaticism and the maddening influences of an invasion by barbarians from the interior of Africa. Berlin, Nov. 23.

The defeat of Hicks Pasha caused a painful sensotion here, as eight German officers were with the Egyptian expedition. It is the unanimous opinion that Eugland cannot withdraw her forces from Egypt—that she must avenge thn murder of Commander Moncrieff. Consul &t Souakim, and others, who were uctive opponents of the slave trade.