Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-11-11
THE PRESS CENSORSHIP
Responsible for the Great Dearth Of News
from South africa.

London, Nov ia 30-Complete
silence has again fallen upon affairs in
South Africa. The British public must
perfoce be content with the brief, ster-
otyped report, which the censor allows
to filter through from Cape Town
That this condition of things is no
lonrer due to the pressure of work oil
de Iectiye cables has been amply prov
I'd. The Eastern Telegraph Co. reck-
ons that the real delay in transmission
is about two days. 1t is evident there
fore, that the censorship is responsible
for the two other days of delay which
aeems to befal all the dispatches.
Moreover, the Daily Telegraph an
nounces that its appropriated dis
watches from Ladysmith. dated Mon
day, which the war office published,
Tuesday. was not delivered in Fleet
street until. yesterday FridaD morn
ing. 1t is believed that the war office
received further dispatches, last even
ins,, but nothing has been published.
At banquet in London. yesterday.
the Duke of Cambridge, speaking of
the war said: We ought never to
have allowed ourselves to be in the po-
sition in which the outbreak of war
found us. / could cry over the valua-
ble'lives which might have been spared.
had we been better prepared.
1t is said that Gen. Butler never eX-
pected to commence the campaign be-
fore Christmas: and it now looks as
though this will be the case. Certain
" no artillery can reach Durham before
Nov IA, and. without additional guns.
an advance from t,stcourt would be
impossible No doubt, as Lord Sails
bury said in recent speech England
will 'muddle through it, and yet an
other illustration of muddling has be
come APPARENT in the fact that gunnery
instructors have only just arrived at
Woolwich arsenal for instruction in
train duties. Although hurried prep
arations are being made to prepare the
siege trains. the fact that men are az
Davenport and the guns at WoolWlch
sem to show that the idea of the siege
train was quite an afterthought.
The Morning Post says: What Will
come of such muddling. if we ever
come to fighting a foe able to turn it TO
advantage? Some radical reforms are
still needed in our mobilization ar
rangements.'
The statement from LadySmith that
the British guns do not reply to the
Boer artillery because the concrete
beds for the guns have not yet harden
ed in interpreted in some quarters to
mean simply that the British are hus-
handing their ammunition. as the Boer
fire is only trick to get the British to
waste shells.
Among the few items that have ar
rived from the Cape. today. is one say
ing that the Beers are planting more
guns from the hills surrounding Lady
smith All the correspondents in the
beloaSuercd town are safe and anxious
to reopen communication. y gentle
men who visited Nicholson's Mex after
the engagement counted % killed and
20 wounded.
The latest advices from Kimberley.
dated Nov. >. say that all was well
there then. An explosion has been
heard and the suppositiOn was that the
Beers had blown up the railway Gull
vert south of Dronfield.
The Belgian government. it is SAID.
has warned DR.. Leyds, whose head
quarters is at Brussels. that Belgian
is neutral country. A corps Of ensi-
neers from Gibraltar Will accompany
the siege train to the Cape. and the
men will be used in mounting the
heaviest guns The two battalions of
mounted infantry. every man selected
for his riding and shooting qualities