A Renter's telegram from Constantinople despatched on Thursday states that,
according to" private advices," a great battle was fought in the district of Shanel between the Turkish troops and the Yemen insurgents—Yemen is the Arabian province bordering on the Red Sea—and that the Sultan's army was victorious. But though the Turks are said to have captured the rebel positi^-,, and though the rebels lost four thousand in killed and v. onnded, it is admitted that the Turkish loss was two thousand, and that the insurrection is "far from being quelled." It is added that the task of the Turkish General will be difficult, as the commanding positions are held by the rebels. "More- over, numerous desertions are reported from the ranks of the Turkish troops." Possibly the telegram may state the real facts ; but we confess to thinking it more probable that the Turkish troops have met with a serious reverse, and are now hemmed in by the rebels in a very difficult country. On that supposition, the Porte is now letting the bad news leak out gradually, and in the form of a victory with heavy losses for the victors, to be followed later by some story of desertion and treachery which ended in a great lose of life. If our reading is the true one, the news is very important. A real Turkish defeat in Yemen might mean a rising throughout Arabia. Imagine not merely an Arab insurrection, but an Arab resurrection, and all Asiatic Turkey passing, not into the bands of tee European Powers, but of a great Arab ruler ! Probably that will not happen, but it is a very curious possibility.
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