Note 428 — Chapter XVI · FIRST PART OF THE WAR IN THE SUDAN, 1884-85—EXPEDITION UP THE NILE.

A proposition had been made at this time to send 200 or 300 cavalry to Berber, which probably they could have reached. But the General Commanding in Egypt (Lieut.-General Sir F. Stephenson, K.C.B.) opposed it, on the grounds that it was undesirable to fritter away our troops in small detachments, that so weak a force in the Mahdi’s country and unsupported there, could achieve no success, and must only add to the numbers who had to be rescued from the Sudan.