DESERT WARFARE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14139, 19 February 1910, Page 3

DESERT WARFARE.

THE FRENCH DISASTER. INSTRUCTIONS EXCEEDED. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. (Received Fob. 19, 8.40 a.m.) PARIS, Feb. 18. The disaster in the Central Sudan State of Wadai, a French Protectorate State, . where the Sultan of Massalot inflicted a heavy loss on a French detachment, was debated in the French Chamber of Deputies. The deceased captain is blamed for exceeding his instructions in occupying desert territory. The Government, it, is- said, restricts occupation to Aheshr, the capital of the State of Wadai. [Wadai, to the oast of Kancm,- with an area of about 170,000 square miles, and a semi-civilised population of about 2,000,000, accented the French protectorate in the summer of 1903. The capital is in communication with Benghazi, on tho coast of Tripoli, by caravans.]