The correspondent of the Daily News at Amman telegraphs on
Tuesday that he has had a long conversation with Major Kitchener, the able officer who is organising the Arabs from Wady Haifa to the Red Sea. Major Kitchener is positive that Berber has fallen, and has fallen to the Mandi's regular force, the " Dervish Army," in which strict discipline is kept. He says the extent and depth of the Mandi's movement is underrated at home, and expects an invasion of Upper Egypt " after Ramadan," or, let us say, in August. There is, of course, no proof that his view is accurate; but he has experience, and is in communication with the most influential Arab chiefs. Entirely different news comes in from other sources,— one account even representing the Mandi as a prisoner to the Harmer tribe, having been captured on his way to Khartoum. We doubt if any Arab, friendly or hostile, would touch the Mandi, and, we repeat, we distrust all pilgrim stories. The pilgrims want to pass the British sailors in safety, and may repeat, by agreement among themselves, the most soothing
Previous page
