The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-12-26
TYPHOID AT LADYSMI7H
Is Proving More Effected Than the Artillery
Of the Roefs.
BUTLER WILL MAKE ONE MORE EFFORT
To Relieve white Before General
Roberts Gets 10 the scenc-Is
Taking Fresh BattRlions.

New York, December 25.--A dispatch
to the Tribune from London says: I'm
less all signs fall Tommy Atkins las
taken his Christmas dinner as quietly as
an ordinary English householder. The
war office has issued series of casualty
termaritzburg and Ladysmith, but other
wise has not thrown any new light On
the military situation.
The Ladysmith list shows that typhoid
fever and dysentery are more effective
than the Beers artillery in reducing the
strength of the garrison day by day. Inc
military staff seems to have chosen an
unsanitary as well as an indefensible posi-
ton at Ladysmith before the opening of
the campaign, when a much stronger site
for a camp might have been selected at
Colenso or Estcourt, with superior
water supply. Generals Butler and White
have been required to pay the penalties
for the original blunders of the engineers
who recommended Lady smith and Glencoe
as sites for British camps when the
Tugela line was the natural line of de-
Tense in Natal, with station In reserve
Mt Moot river.
Concentration of their forces is now an
undertaking of great difficulty as is evil
dent from the reports of Buffers battle,
which are still coming in. Ten days
after Longs artillery was lost, it is clear
that General Butler will renew the at
tempt to relieve Ladysmith while Lord
Roberts is on the sea. He is receiving
reinforcements and fresh batteries and
ought to be in a position to reopen hos
tilities in week or ten days, unless he
waits for the siege trains The move
ments of the battalions arriving at Cape
town are now concealed by the authorities
but General Butler is evidently taking
the fresh troops and replacing his lost
artillery while General Methuen is forced
to stand by and watch the Beers while
they extend their rifle trenches and
strengthen their position in front of Mod
der river.
General Butler is justified in this course
If Ladysmith, as is generally believed, Is in
more critical condition than Kimber-
ley. About IL 500 troops will arrive during
the next eighteen days at Capetown before
Lord Roberts assumes command. With
this body of achievements, General Bull
Ter will not have the facilities for setting
every column again on the offensive, but
he will at least have sufficient strength
for maneuvering against Colenso and at
tempting to turn the enemy's position
there. This is what military men in Lon
don are expecting him to do within
fortnight.
One reassuring sign is the publication
of mail letters from Ladysmith Estcourt
and other points in Natal. which evil
IDENTIFY have not been submitted to the
military censor. This budget of CORE
spondence deals in critical spirit with
the blunders made by the staff and the
irritating business of the martinez In
repeatedly changing camp and exhausting
the patience of the soldiers The letters
also contain evidence that the British field
artillery is distinctly inferior not only to
the Boer guns in range but to the guns
of almost every important European pow
er. This campaign is bringing out many
unpleasant revelations of which full polit-
ical use will be made when the liberal
opposition learns the true points of at
tack.