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Show SITUATION II EGYPT IS FULIJF DANGER Native Population Sullen Since Declaration of Holy War; British Disaster. By CAMTXLO CIA NT AREA. (Special Cable by Arrangement With London Daily Telegraph and International News Service.) ROUE, Feb. 27. Notwithstanding the rigorous censorship on all press messages anJ private loiters and tho reassuring statements state-ments issued by the English authorities about tho situation in Egypt, old Italian residents of the Egyptian capital have brought here enough data to strengthen the belief that, in the Sinai peninsula all has not gone as England might have wished, that the colonial co-lonial troops defending the canal have on more than one occasion met with crushing reverses and that the situation all along the canal if not critical is to Bay the least extremely precarious. Ab to the situation In the capital the Italians say that the city which up to a month or so ago sported an air full of confidence in the ability of the colonial troops to prevent the invasion of the country coun-try and went even as far as to predict a brilliant season, lives now in constant fear of some dire calamity. What is more ominous is the Bullen, hostile hos-tile attitude assumed by the native population popula-tion Bince tho holy war was proclaimed. Now and then a Christian gendarme is found mysteriously slaiu in the dark alley b of the fish market and it is invariably the short, double-edged dagger that splits the heart of the man caught unaware. Of these murders never a word is Baid and the papers are forbidden to refer to them in the news columns. Signor Guelfo Civini, in a long dispatch to the Oorriere de La Sera, which the English censor refused to pass, relates a number of Episodes with which the English authorities never acquainted the world. On January 17 an Anglo-Indian oolumn 8000 Btrong with six mountain pieces advanced ad-vanced as far bb Bir-el-Dneidar. Here the column mot a few groups of Bedouins, who, on being' attacked, retreated. The English officers decided to pursue them, when, all of a sudden, a large group of enemies appeared from behind the sand dunos. The colonials fought bravely, but the number of Bedouins increased until the whole column was surrounded. Several brilliant bril-liant churges were delivered and finally the polumn succeeded in opening its way for the retreat by leaving on the field its whole artillery. In the evening only half of the column returned to El Kantara, whence it had started. Throe days later another English column 3000 Btrong left Geneife for Kubri, a distance dis-tance of some ten miles. Its fate came very near being that of the El Kantara column, col-umn, and if the colonials were not completely com-pletely surrounded it was thanks to the courage and the brilliant charge of tho Canadian Ca-nadian contingent. Large groups of Bedouins, Bed-ouins, well concealed behind the high dunes, attacked the column from all sides, inflicting inflict-ing losses estimated at 300 dead and 1000 wounded. The public never heard of these engagements engage-ments and when, several days later, a ship bearing 500 wounded reached Alexandria a communication was issued saying that they were convalescents who had gone to Egypt to recuperate. |