§ GENERAL ALEXANDER (for General OWEN WILLIAMS)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether, considering the fact that no official Returns of the condition of the Camel Corps have been received of later date than 1st February, and that as this Corps is composed of picked men from the various corps d'élite, and therefore it must be considered as the flower of the Army, he will telegraph for an immediate report of the precise condition of this Corps at the present time, private reports representing it as most deplorable?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONI have telegraphed to the Nile for particulars of the condition of the Camel Corps. The following is the reply I have received:—
Camel Corps now in summer quarters; Lights at Shabadood, 19 officers, 290 non-commissioned officers and men effective; no serious case in hospital; exact number unknown, and no telegraph. Guards at Dongola, 19 officers, 295 men effective—six sick; Heavies at Hafir, 21 officers, 261 men effective—no sick. Men could not be in better condition. Corps in bad condition in the sense that men are dismounted. They are intended to be so for the present.