The Late General Earle.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 106, 13 June 1885, Page 6

The Late General Earle.

TiiJi "Daily News " publishes a letter from its special correspondent giving full details of the battle of Kerbekan on the 10th ult. The correspondent thinks that a more gallant assault on a seemingly impregnable stronghold cannot be found recorded in military history. He continues :— Like wild beasts of the forest surprised in their lair, the Arabs fought at bay with the courage of desperation, having the vantage ground everywhere. And thus against desperate odds, our gallant soldiers, in spite of a withering fire all round, gained rock after rock, fastness after fastness, behind which the well directed aim of the Arabs dealt death ap every shot. Inch by inch, foot by foot, with fearful odds against them, do the Highlanders on tho left and the Stafford men on the right press forward and gain ground, whilo the black granito beneath their feet became red and slippery from gore; whilo on they pressed over ghastly corpses, over the groaning, dying and wounded. Thus for hours wag heard the ring of the rifle, the clashing of sword and spear, the cheers of the soldiers encouraging each other, the yell of tho infuriated Arabs, the roaring of the guns, and the groans of the dying. Thero, is one house on a rise of the ground, brickbuilt, with two windows in each wing, a door bricked up between. Most of the enemy's positions had beon turned. General Earle is walking up to this to sec what it is and what it contains, when a sergeant cries out, "Don't go near it, sir; there are men inside." The man has hardly spoken when "crack !) goes a rifle, and the General i3 seen to fall dead — shot through the head. The house is surrounded, but ontrance found impossible, but it is set fire to and an opening blown with powder. There were from 15 to 25 men inside ; all were killed - some shot, some burnt. They held out and fought to the last, knowing their fate if they issued forth. By three in the afternoon all resistance was over. An officer of one of the regiments engaged gives in the "Daily Telegraph" an account of the brilliant action at Kerbekan, in which, by the skilful strategy of General Earle, who himself fell in the attack, a mere handful of our troops dislodged a large body of Arabs from a strongly entrenched position on tho Nile. He writes :— It appears that the General was killed in the following way. The position had just been carried. The rebels had made a stone house with loopholes, and a thatch roof, in a hollow of their position, Our men killed several men coming out of this house, and had soon others ontor. The roof of the house was on fire, and I beleive ammunition was exploding inside. The General had ordered the house to be set on fire himself. Some of my men told the General some rebels were inside, but the General advanced to the house, when he was immediately shot through the head from a loophole, and the man who had shot him threw his Remington out of the holo. The General fell quite dead.

Steps are to be taken at Dunedin to annul the bankruptcy of David Proudfoot, tho well-known contractor.