Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-20
a proclamation prohibiting the impor-
tation Of all dangerous explosives.

| ceived here from Bloemfontein, capital
of the Orange Free State, President
Kruger t~elegraphed an account to
President Steyn of the affair at
K%raaipan, where the Beers derailed
and bombarded the British armored
train, carrying Capt. Nesbitt's party.
Mr.. Kruger said that Nesbitt and
seven men were seriously wounded,
that no one was killed and that all
the prisoners are well. According to
the same adyices to a Dutch farmer, llv-
ing in one of the border towns, has re-
ceived a letter from a friend in the
Transvaal referring to the Mafeking
affair as dad business"
The Associated Press learns that the
transports which will convey the army
corps about to start for South Africa
will go neither to Durham nor Cape
Town, both of which are already over
crowded with refugees, but to Port
Elizabeth, Port Alfred and East Lon
don, from which points railroads con-
verge directly upon the Free State bor-
der, where concentration will be
effected somewhere in the neighbor-
hood of Norvals Point. The advance
will then begin toward Pretoria,
straight through the Free State.
Almost everything is now in readi-
ness for the great departure of troops
from Southampton tomorrow, when
five troop-ships, each carrying a thou
sand men, with officers, will start for
South Africa. The first will sail at 1:30
p. M, the others following at intervals
of half an hour
NEW YORK, October ia dis
patch to the Tribune from London
says: The latest intelligence from the
seat of wal indicates that fighting of a
serious nature has begun in Natal. De-
tails are very scanty at present, but
hostilities were evidently started by the
Free State troops, who advanced from
Trintwa Pass and engaged the British
cavalry patrols in a long-range artil-
iery duel. Firing continued for the
greater part of yesterday, but it is not
known with what result, although it is
admitted that there are several casual
ties on the British side. Sir George
White has pushed up his supports. and
everything points TO a big engagement
to-day.
Ladysmith has fully 5000 troops and
at Glencoe, on the other flank of the
British defensive line there are 1900.
The very risky and caring movement
of the Beers is directed towards en-
~veloping this line, two columns advanc-
ing against Ladysmith, Gen. Joubert
directing the forces IN the neighbor-
hood of Dundee. Should the attack be
delivered simultaneously at both places
it will prove the Beers to nave carried
out plans of considerable completely
with a precision which might excite the
envy of any soldiers in the world.
Should they succeed at the same time
in thrusting their columns between
Ladysmith and Dundee they will prac-
tically isolate the latter place and may
be able to mask the British garrisons at
that point and Ladysmith, while the
concentration described as having
G%reytown as it's objective advances I'M
opposed to Pietermaritzburg Bennett
Burleigh, in a telegram dispatched
from Ladysmith last night, says it is
reported that the Beers are hemmed in
at Acton Homes and suffering severity.
A dispatch to the World from Lon
don says: The calling out of the militia
indicates plainly that the British gov
eminent considers it necessary to take
timely precautions against some foreign
complication which threatens to super
vene upon the Transsaal trouble. In
the first instance, the militia is only to
be employed to take the place in home
garrisons of the line regiments that are
going to South Africa.
The government has not thought it
advisable, in view of the hostile feeling
evoked in Ireland by the attack ON the
Beers republics, to reduce the Irish
military establishment below its normal
strength of 40,000 men, and it Is intend
ed tc set free the regular regiments
stationed in Ireland for war service by
substituting English militia battalions
in the Irish garrisons, the Irish militia
being SEM for duty TO England.
The militia can be sent on foreign
service, but such a measure is never
contemplated. except in time of extreme
national peril, when the home defense
is to be committed to the volunteers.
This calling out of the militia has added
appreeiably to the general estimate of
the gravity of the situation.
w. T. Stead has issued a pamphlet
on the Boer war, entitled Are We in
the Right? An Appeal to All Honest
Men," 1t is an indictment of Chamber
lain's diplomacy, bringing into the
strongest relief the persistent provoca-
tive course followed by the colonial sec
rotary through the negotiations with
the patent object of forcing war on