We regret to say that news reached London during the
week of a British reverse in Somaliland. The first official messages, read by Mr. Harcourt in the House of Commons on Tuesday, were despatched by the Acting-Commissioner, Mr. G. F. Archer, from Burao, a village nearly a hundred and fifty miles inland from Berbera on the coast. Mr. Archer reported that on August 9th the Camel Corps, a force of a hundred and fifty men, had been attacked by a Dervish party between one thousand and two thousand strong while carrying out a recon- naissance at Odwein, about thirty miles south-west of Burao. Mr. Corfield, who was commanding the corps, was killed and Mr. Summers severely wounded, while there were about fifty other casualties. On hearing this news Mr. Archer very courageously marched out from Burao to the relief of the corps with an escort of only twenty men. He succeeded in bringing the survivors and the wounded back to Burao, and, as we learn from a telegram received on Wednesday, subse- quently retired to Sheikh, which is half-way between Burao and the coast. Meanwhile, reinforcements had come up from Berbera, and a further three hundred men were despatched from Aden to assist the Somaliland forces, so that on Thursday Mr. Harcourt could describe the situation as " entirely satis- factory."
