29 JUNE 1901, Page 1

A very little but rather important British war has ter-

minated successfully. A Dervish, called locally the "Mad Mullah," thought he could seize the Somali country, and invaded the northern part of it, thereby affronting Menelik of Abyssinia and defying the British supremacy. Menelik sent a considerable army which kept him out of Abyssinian terri- tory, and the British sent a little one, cavalry and camel - riders, not eight hundred men in all, to hunt him down. A. he had some six thousand followers, be ought to have massacred the expedition, and compelled us to send a regular army at a cost, say, of two millions, but fortunately all the officers and half the men were from India. They attacked the Mullah at any disadvantage, and when he retreated pursued him more rapidly than he could fly. They were, in fact, as mobile as Boers, and though the country was horrible, they finally on June 11th broke up his force and drove him into the interior, a powerless fugitive shorn -of all pre- tensions to become a Mahdi. It was a considerable feat thoroughly well performed ; and though the public notices nothing except skirmishes in South Africa, Colonel Swayne and Captain Merewether will not, we may be sure, escape the notice of the Indian authorities. Unlike our War Office, they ask of their men, first of all, success.