§ MR. CHILDERSThe House would feel much obliged if the Secretary of State for War would say if he has received any further information to-day or recently from Egypt.
§ * MR. E. STANHOPESir Francis Grenfell telegraphed on the 16th that he had that morning sent a proclamation to the Dervish camp, addressed to N'jumi and three principal Emirs, calling on them to surrender. The proclamation was read to the people, and this morning N'jumi's answer has been received. After the usual salutations, he says: —
Your force is nothing to me, and my goal is not Bimban, as you think, hut the world which I am to convert. All who surrender to me I can protect. Your letters have been sent to the Khalifah to answer. I cannot stop now. Take my advice and surrender. Remember Hicks and Gordon, and what little good their armies availed them.The Sirdar also adds that—Distress in the Dervish camp is exaggerated, fighting men taken being apparently well fed, but camp followers, women, and slaves come in exhausted and emaciated. There is no suffering after they join us. There are complete arrangements for rationing, which are working well.