ATTACK ON A BRITISH PATROL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12647, 27 April 1903, Page 5

ATTACK ON A BRITISH PATROL.

FORTY-FIVE MEN REPULSE THREE

THOUSAND,

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, April 24. (Received April 25, at 8.53 a.m.) Tiie Emir of Kano, with 1200 horse and 2000 foot, attacked a mounted British patrol, consisting of 44 members of the West African force, under Lieutenant Wright, at Kotokoross. Lieutenant Wright formed a square zarcba of dense thorns, and successfully repulsed ten charges, killing 300 of tho enemy, including 11 chiefs.

Only one of the British was hit.

The British had only CO rounds oi ammunition left when the enemy fled.

The King's Speech from the Throne on February 17 contained the following sentence:—"lt has bc-en found necessary to send an expedition to Eano in consequence of (ho hostilo action of the Emir of that place. My troops have successfully occupied his capital, and I trust that it will now become possiblo to proceed in safety vith the delineation of the boundary between my territory of Northern Nigeria and tho adjoining possessions o£ the French Republic." Dr Tonkin, late medic-ill officer to tho Hatissa Association's Central Soudan 'Expedition, in the Empire Review, says that Kano during tho last fow hundred years, as a commercial emporium, has dominated not only the business life of tho Sultana's to which it belongs, but the whole West Central Soudan. Kano standa on a rich and fertile plain right in tho heart of the Sultanate of Sokoto. The town has Parted manufactures, and attracted to itself n. commerce that has given it a pre-eminence in many respects similar to that enjoyed itiy Manchester in relation to Europe and ■America.