§ MR. M'COANasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government are aware that more than eighty per cent, of the male population of Upper Egypt, from Assiout to Wady Halfa, are, unlike the fellaheen of the Delta, very efficiently armed; and, whether, in view of the threatened extension of the Mahdi's rebellion northwards, the urgent expediency of disarming those people, the most fanatical and warlike of all the population of Egypt proper, has been considered?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEThese Questions involve military considerations, which cannot be conveniently dealt with in an answer to an inquiry in the House.