The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-11-11
Little Given Gut as to the Situation
In South Africa,
Though II Is Asserted That the Cables Are
In Good Working Order.
Beers Reported to be Planting
More Guns in the Hills Sur
rounding Ladysmith-A Rumor
That a British Regiment Was
Decimated by Free Staters, Re-
sulting In a Loss Of Six Hun
dred Killed and Wounded.

| 0re0 A111e0 and wounded.
| LONDON, Nov. II, 4:3O a. m-Com-
plete silence has again fallen upon af-
! fairs in South Africa The British
public must perforce be content with
the brief, stereotyped report which the
censor allows to filter through from
Cape Town, though that this condition
of affairs is no longer due to pressure OF
work or defective cables has been am
ply proved.
The Eastern Telegraph Company
reckons that the real delay in trans
mission is about two days. 1t is evil
dent, therefore, that the censorship is
responsible for the other two days Of
delay which seems to befall the dis
patches. Moreover, the Daily Tele-
graph" announces that it's "appropri-
ated dispatch" from Ladysmith dated
Monday, which the War Office pub
lished on Tuesday, was not delivered in
Fleet street until yesterday morning.
1t is believed that the War Office re-
ceived further dispatches last evening,
but nothing has been published.
| The Morning Post" says: What
will come of such muddling, if we ever
come to fighting 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 don't reply to the
Boer artillery because the concrete
beds for the guns have not yet hard
ened is interpreted in some quarters to
mean simply that the British are hus-
banding 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 to-day is one say
ing that the Beers are planting more
guns in the hills surrounding Lady
smith. All the correspondents in the
beleaguered town are safe. and are
anxious to reopen communication.
A gentleman who visited Nicholson's
Mex after the. engagement counted
twenty five in killed and seventy in
wounded
| The latest advices from Kimberley,
dated November I'd, say that all was
we'll there then. An explosion had
been heard, and the supposition was
that the Beers had blown up the rail-
way culverts south of Dronfield
/ Orders for the mobilization of the nee
essary reserves for the supplementary
division announced yesterday by Lord
! Wolseley were issued last night The
men will join between November 18th
and Doth.
The troopship Bavarian sailed for the
Cape last evening carrying the Con-
~ rer11f BOY
the Royal Dublin Fusileers and a con-
tingent of miscellaneous troops, Afro
gether over 1900 men, and a large
quantity of stores Crowds witnessed
and cheered the departure of the yes
sell
! The Belgian Government, it is said
has warned DR.. Leyds, whose head
quarters are at Brussels, that Belgium
is neutral country.
| A corps of engineers from Gibraltar
viii accompany the siege train to the
! Cape, and the men will be used in
mounting the heaviest guns in EN-
brasures. Two battalions of mounted
| infantry, every man selected for his
riding and shooting qualities, will be
sent to the front.
THE REAL CAMPAIGN COM
MENCED.
| LONDON. Nov. 10.-With the ar
rival at Cape Town of the British
transports Ros1yn Castle and Moor, to
be followed by a continuous succession
of troop laden ships, the real campaign
/ in South Africa may be said to have
commenced, and the fact that the first
named ship was expected to arrive at
\ W. h icf 70
a modification of the plan of advance.
| 1t seems that General Buffers first
move will be to General White thus
somewhat departing from the earlier
plan credited to him of advancing
through the level countries of the
| Orange Free State and Southwestern
Transvaal. 1t has been apparent for
some days that the situation at Lady
smith could not be indefinitely pro-
longed, and it is understood that infor-
nation has reached the Government to
| the effect that the Quiescence of the
Beers will shortly be changed, by the
arrival of the siege train from Pretoria.
/ into a determined attempt to deliver a
| telling stroke. This it is added led
General Butler to prepare counter
stroke, and endeavor to push the Beers
back by a. direct attack. Such an OPP
GRAFTON, if attempted, will necessarily
entail great expenditure of life, as dur
ing the month the Beers have occupied
Northern Natal they have fitted most
of the passes and other positions suit
able to their style of fighting.
/ While the pigeon dispatch of White
shows the beleaguered garrison was
holding its own yesterday, it is feared
here that the silence regarding what
the British artillery was doing in reply
to the Boer guns indicates that the
dread that General White is short of
long range ammunition is not altogeth-
er groundless. If this is true the re-
ported further destruction of the rail-
road near Colenso assumes greater i'm
portance.
One very serious passage in General
Whites message gives the first official
information of the statements of Boer
treachery, which there has been q dis.
position hitherto to discredit, but which
must now be accepted as at least partly
true