5 JULY 1879, Page 3

The Peshawar correspondent of the Times gives a melancholy account

of General Browne's Division, the first, now returning from Guudamuk. The war having concluded, it was necessary, ." for financial and political reasons," to march back the troops in the height of the hot season. They were very weak, the 10th Hussars and the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade in par- ticular, from exposure, overwork, and bad climate ; and on the return march, cholera and dysentery "reappeared," so that the 10th Hussars "reached Rawul Pindee in a state of great ex- haustion," and "the loss of life which has marked the retire- ment has been very deplorable." The 4th Battalion Rifle Brigade has "finally succumbed to the hardships of the return march, and will, it is feared, reach its destination (Murree) in a sadly shattered condition." The 81st Foot " suffered so much from the effects of the first few weeks in the Khyber "—which has been ceded to us for ever—" that it was necessary to with- draw it almost immediately to Rawul Pindee." The fatal arrangements for the return march were directed by telegram from Simla—a cool and pleasing Capua, 8,000 ft. above the sea —and not left in any degree to the discretion of the Divisional Ghaerals. The number of deaths is cautiously suppressed, but the Division at Candahar has been ordered, " for sanitary reasons," to remain. The columns have lost 40,000 camels, a considerable proportion having, by mismanagement, perished of want. Even between Peshawar and Jumrood the skeletons lie heaped by the wayside.