Show THE DERVISH DEFEAT THE united british and egyptian forces operating in upper egypt against the arabian dervishes some gome times called the Sou danese have at last reached the enemy and dealt I 1 him a terrible blow the telegraphic accounts say the dervishes numbered SM and were nearly all slain the loss lose to the allies being but trifling some allowance should be made for the report being as most war reports first sent out axe are from one side only the dervishes are not represented in the accounts received except by their opponents and as they are not a civilized people we are not likely to hear from them nor will they greatly care whether we do or not one thing is very evident they have been badly defeated for the first time and something like retaliation for the fate of the gallant gordon has been visited upon them for several dreary years the british government has been pushing this brutal business in egypt endeavoring because of a debt to override a vast country inhabited by ferocious fanatics with whom to the die is to be exalted death being thus stripped of its terrors and a wild barbaric religious zeal swaying them they naturally fight with great desperation and hitherto with almost unwavering success so much so that one expedition after another at a cost to the taxpayers of great britain of hundreds of millions of pounds has baa ignominiously withdrawn or been ingloriously defeated yet it goes on and will continue to go on till the rebels M as they are called are forced to the wall or surrender even if it should take the last shilling Dg out of the british exchequer and the last man from a british household for it is understood that britain never lets go till the object in view is accomplished complis hed there is but one great exception in modern times and that was on this side of the atlantic something over a century centory ago it seems that the engagement occurred near a little egyptian village called though it has not so appeared in any of the dispatches received here the allies were under the command of general grenfell of the royal dragoons and a dervish of high degree of owl course whose name is unpronounceable but written wad el auml led the other side the battle seems to haqq ba been short sharp and d decisive the dervishes being practically annihilated it appears that they exhibited a considerable degree of that military skill and precision of movement which they have recen recently tay brought to bear with such deadly effect against the abys and later against the english and the egyptians at one period in the struggle they sought to ever overcome come the extreme right flank of the egyptian forces their object being of course to get beyond the lines of the allies and nd attack them in the rear to accomplish com this they massed their forces against that point knowing as they do by experience and otherwise that an egyptian column is much easier turned than one composed of englishmen but gren felps plans were apparently too won weh laid and the effort was abortive resulting as above set out in the complete destruction of the assailants how far this victory may go ii in the direction of securing peace is an open and unanswerable question of course it will greatly discourage the deveris hes but it is doubt ful if it will do more their numbers are still very great and their resources all things considered next to infinite besides this it should be remembered that but a fraction action ft of their fighting strength was engaged in this bab tie while the english have recently been strongly reinforced from the mediterranean by fresh men and additional weapons the latter numbered effective troops and y the egyptians twice as many at least that is their field footing and j it is supposable that all were en this would show the con test to have been a very unequal one more than six to one and while it is the best if not the only H way to accomplish decisive results in egypt and arabia it is doubtful if the dervishes dervis hee do not strengthen their own hands proportionately win again take the field and in the language of the great blucher up a and nd at eva em 22 9 we incline to the opinion that the victory while important por tant is not conclusive by any means |