16 DECEMBER 1882, Page 3

Sir Andrew Clarke has returned from Egypt. He found upwards

of 2,000 sick and wounded soldiers lying under canvas, or in ill-arranged and ill-ventilated hospitals and barracks. He succeeded in persuading the Khedive to place at his disposal some of the supernumerary palaces, only tenanted by the dis- carded favourites of former reigns and their attendants. One of these palaces, that of Hassan, close to Cairo, was capable of receiving 1,300 men and 600 horses; another, not occupied since the time of Mehemet Ali, has nearly equal capacity. Since the Knights of St. John gave up their own palace in Sicily to the sick, and lived in huts and tents alongside, so good a use has not been found for Eastern palaces.