The Government has ordered a force from India to be
sent to Suakin. It will consist of the 35th Sikhs, the Nth Punjab Infantry, the 1st Bombay Lancers, the 5th Bom- bly Mountain Battery, and a company of Madras Sappers, the whole including about two thousand five hundred men. Colonel Egerton, of the Guides, will command, and the Staff will be unusually complete. The brigade, which is already on its way to Bombay, where transport has been prepared for it, will, it is stated, garrison Suakin, whence the Egyptian garrison will be withdrawn for the Nile ; but it is obvious that it will be ready should a movement be decided on to Berber, and that it can make everything ready for a much larger force. There is little doubt that in the end a conjoint movement from Wady Haifa and from Suakin will be decided on, and it is most advisable that the two corps should be kept distinct. The Indians do their work best when let alone to follow out the plans which experience has taught them. The question of pay has not yet been settled, but, as we have argued elsewhere, India ought to pay the Indian wages and expenses of the force, and either Great Britain or Egypt all the extra charge.
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