THE EARL or CARNARVONThere is another Question I have to ask, of which I have given the noble Earl private Notice. It is with regard to the reports which have appeared in many of the newspapers with respect to the supposed fall of Berber, and the massacre of the garrison and the people in the town. I am quite aware that the reports are of a conflicting character; but I should be glad to know what the opinion of Her Majesty's Government is on the subject.
THE EARL or KIMBERLEYMy noble Friend has unfortunately as good means of judging between these conflicting reports as I have. No fresh news has been received during the last two days. Some few days ago a report was received saying that according to the intelligence that had reached Mr. Egerton at Cairo there was reason to believe that Berber was safe. Since that telegram, which my noble Friend has seen in the newspapers, information has appeared— and, in fact, our intelligence is identical with it—stating that Berber has been taken and the garrison destroyed. We have no means of knowing which of these two telegrams is correct. Mr. Egerton is disposed to think that the later news is probably not well founded; but I have no means of stating whether that surmise is well founded, as I have no information on the subject.