NEWS OF THE WEEK
AN Expedition to raise the siege of Khartoum has now been finally resolved on, and the preparations are rapidly advancing. General Wolseley, with the Staff which invariably accompanies him, composed of "the men who can write, and fight," as they are described, has started for Cairo, and the plan of the campaign has been mapped-out. The Nile route has been chosen as the only one on which a supply of drinking. water is secure ; and a method of ascending the river devised, which is nearly, though not quite, original in modern warfare. Some 14,000 British troops will be accumulated in Egypt, and half this number will be forwarded to Sarra.s, 860 miles from Alexandria, by rail and steamer. They are still, however, 844 miles from Khartoum, and the plan is to ascend the river for that distance in long, shallow boats, of which 800 have been ordered, and will be forwarded from England. In each boat will be ten soldiers, with stores for ninety days ; and it is calculated that the force should reach Khartoum by the New Year. The road is long, and the rapids to be passed are dangerous, but there will be no trouble from water or the climate, and Lord Wolseley did the same work on the Red River. A number of Canadian and Kroomen boatmen will accompany the flotilla, and the Arabs on shore are reckoned of little account. The idea is bold, and its development will greatly interest the Prussian Staff ; but there is no reason visible why it should not succeed, and that without the loss of life inevitable on the Suakim-Berber route through the Desert.
