It was supposed on Wednesday that Lord E. Fitzmaurice had
pledged the Government to an expedition from Suakim to Berber, but this was not the case. What happened was this. Lord R. Churchill raised another Egyptian debate on Tues- day night, in order to waste the time before Easter, and wanted to know why Osman Digna was attacked again. Lord E. Fitzmanrice, in reply, said that if Osman's forces were dispersed, there would be no great difficulty in opening up communications between the coast and Berber, to General Gordon's great advantage. When challenged by Mr. Gorst, be repudiated any other interpretation of his meaning, de- claring that the road was to be opened by' communications with the Sheiks. They are, in fact, expected' to guard the road. It is only if this expectation is disappointed that force will be employed, and their conduct will probably depend on events in Khartoum of which we know as yet nothing. It is, in fact, as impossible for a British Ministry as for anybody else either to deliver, or to arrange for delivering, blows in utter darkness. It is one of the many political disadvantages of the electric telegraph, that any injury to it seems to alter the configuration of the world. To-day, we are an hour from Khartoum, and to-morrow three weeks ; an Arab with an axe having the power to multiply distance for us, as far as messages are concerned, almost indefinitely.
