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7. Telegraph line to extremity of Dongola Province.

8. Subsidy of 20,0001. to be paid by Egypt for one year, in addition to pay of force, amounting in all to about 150,0001. for the first, and decreasing to 50,0007, the second year.

9. Arnis and ammunition to be furnished by Egyptian Government in first instance.

10. Rations for troops to be sent from Egypt to the head of railway for the first year.

11. Djawdat undertakes, with this force and with the assistance asked for, to form a Government in the Dongola Province, on the full understanding that no responsibility is to be attached hereafter either to the British or Egyptian Govern-

ments.

12. Djawdat requires no English officers; but suggests that a British resident be sent with him for one year to report on his proceedings.

13. English troops to remain at their present positions until this force is formed; probably in three months from the commencement of recruiting.

14. Frontier of Dongola Proviuce to be fixed at Merawi.

No. 5.

Sir H. Drummond Wolff to the Marquis of Salisbury.—(Received January 25.)

(No. 32.) My Lord,

Cairo, January 17, 1886. WITH reference to my despatches Nos. 29 and 30 of yesterday's date, I have the honour to inclose copy of a Memorandum which Mr. Egerton has given me, at my request, on the proposals contained in Mr. Stuart Wortley's Report, and containing his personal views generally on the question it touches.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

H. DRUMMOND WOLFF.

Inclosure in No. 5.

General Observations on the Proposal of Mr. Stuart Wortley for the Return of the Vakeel of Dongola to that Province with a Force of Egyptian and Black Levies, with War Material and a Subsidy from the Egyptian Government.

THE object aimed at is the security of Egypt, with as little drain on the resources of Egypt or of Great Britain as possible.

The view-and prima facie the sensible view-adopted after consultation with the military Commanders about two years ago, in opposition to local opinion, was that it was best to confine the military defence of Egypt to Egypt proper, holding Wady Halfa and Korosko as outposts.

The advantage of concentration seemed palpable. The enemy advancing from the Soudan would have to advance by long desert routes, which would leave them at disadvantage in any attack on the force holding Upper Egypt.

Further experience, however, has brought the discovery that the disturbance of the population in Egypt at the approach of the enemy, the unsteadiness and treachery of the Bedouins, &c., would compel the employment of a larger force than would at first have been considered necessary to carry out this purely defensive measure--a force too largely composed of English, for it would be a question of Mussulmans against Christians. Egypt would become another Algeria, with endless frontier disturbances.

If it can be proved, as I am confident it can, that the retention of Dongola, a self- supporting province, in friendly hands, will diminish the necessity for military effort and expenditure for the security of Egypt, then certainly some such scheme as that of Mr. Wortley must be entertained.

As to Lieutenant Wortley's proposal for the raising of a considerable number of troops to serve under the Vakcel, there is doubtless much advantage, in the present religious fermentation, to employ a Mussulman force to confront and a Mussulman to treat with the rebels of the Soudan.

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