§ MR. BUXTON (Tower Hamlets, Poplar)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether, in view of the collapse of hostile power in the Soudan, Military exigencies will now permit the withdrawal of the British troops stationed at Assouan to a position further North, thus putting an end to the heat mortality, and great sufferings which, as reported in the public press, are entailed on the troops by the occupation of a point as far South as Assouan?
§ THE SECRETARY or STATE FOR WAR (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)(who replied) said: The latest intelligence received from the Military Authorities in Egypt conveys rumours of the assemblage of a considerable force at Dongola, and it is therefore, I fear, premature to speak of "the collapse of hostile power in the Soudan;" but the General Commanding in Egypt has complete discretion as to the strength and composition of the force to be maintained at Assouan. It has been already considerably reduced; and he will, I hope, be able to make still further reductions very shortly. I have already stated in the House that there is no abnormal sickness at the present time among the troops stationed at Assouan.