Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1899-12-14
Britaln's Sovereign Seriously A f
fected by South African News,
PANIC AMONG WAR EXPERTS
Lord Roberts Summoned 20 London
sorrow In English Homes Fight
ing Beers IL No Parade,

4 head Gravest alarm for the Queen.
New York. Dec. IA dispatch to the
Herald from London says:
1t Is stated by a person IN q position
to know that the queens mental
anxiety gives the gravest alarm to the
royal household
The queen insists on receiving the
minutest information from the war
Office as to the state Of affairs. Yet
she Is completely overcome when the
particulars OF each engagement are re-
lated
Even when discussing other matters
and conducting ordinary correspond
ence. the queen suddenly bursts into
food Of tears, and makes pathetic
reference to the misery and hardship
entailed upon her soldiers and their
relatives, as well as upon the Beers
themselves.
No matter where one went last night
to the theater, the club, or to the
hotel-there was but one topic Of dis
cussion-Methuen' defeat and his
probable losses. Later In the evening,
when Il became known that Gen.
Wauchope and the marquis OF Win
chester We're among the killed. the ten
sion was Increased as the thought
flashed through all minds that the list
OF killed and wounded Will carry grief
TO many stately as well as 10 many
loWly homes. Ii Is not an eXaggera-
ton TO say that almost every handsome
mansion in the fashionable West End
contains anxious and sleepless men
and women this morning.
An undertOne OF condemnation 81 the
inactivity Of the war office before hos
Titles began, which resulted In the
British forces being inferior In numbers
to the Beers, has found its way 10 the
surface. This feeling was expressed In
strong terms az the war Office, where
crowds Of anxious men and women
congregated before the doors or walked
through the lobby, reading the bulletins
all through the day and evening. When
1t was announced, after midnight. that
no more news would be given out until
morning they slowly dispersed, Many
women were unable TO control their
emotions.
A dispatch to the World from Lon
don says: The decided check 10 General
Methuen and the heavy British losses
have added 10 the panic among the
military authorities and the lingo war
experts In London.
1t IS noted as significant that this
was the first fight on the soil OF a
South African Republic As q cOnse-
quence General Methuen reports that he
Is intrenchlng TO hold his ground after
two days fight.
Thus the first step in the jubilee
parade 10 Pretoria proves, the friends
OF the Beers declare, another advance
in President Krugers price that viii
stagger humanity"
The war Office now IL pushed to the
extremity Of It's resources.
Lord Roberts the commander-ln-
chief Of her maiesty's forces in Ireland
who long held a similar position In
India. was hastily summoned last
night "wednesday from Dublin 10
London. He broke an engagement 10
appear at a benefit performance FOR
charitable war fund, and took the first
train for the British metropolis
At its extra session Parliament was
told that Si0,0O00 900 would cover the
expense Of the war. Il is now said by
the best Informed that S2OOoOO00O viii
not pay the bill.
Eighty thousand British troops are IN
South Africa now, and 10000 more are
TO be mobilized, or are on the way.
while advance orders for sixth d.
vision Of 10000 men are being executed.
and there are warnings that seventh \
division Of the same number will soon
be collected at Aldershot for shipment
to the Cape,