The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-29

has discovered beneath the managers
house at the Ferreira mine passage
leading TO suite of apartments. forty
feet below the ground, with gas and
water pipes laid down. This is sup
posed TO have been intended To serve
as rendezvous for the employees OF
the Ferreira mine. In the event of
bombardment OF Johannesburg.
\ CORRESPONDENTS VIEWS.
NEW YORK, Nov. 2O.--A dispatch
10 the Tribune from London says:
EsJcourt has remained the center OF
Interest for the last twcnty-fOur hours,
since che Dutch allies are attempting
10 carry out ut the last moment the
tactics which might have been most
effective a fortnight ago. The War
Office bulletin during the forenoon
tended TO minimize the earlier reports
Of a Boer repulse by the garrison. IL
was light outpost affair. with single
smell fired from the naval gun and a
hasty retreat of the small force OF the
enemy. Ii might have been explained
as an unsuccessful attempt OF Frce
State raiders to destroy the railway
bridge half mile away. IL General
Hildyard mad not reported large
Boer force further back on a high hill.
In inference ii was plain that the
Dutch allies were concentrating sew
eral commandoS upon Estcourt and
might attack the garrison or draw AZ
into an ambuscade before adequate re-
Inducements with field artillery could
be sent up from the coast.
Between the lines of the official dis
patch could be read the motive OF this
maneuver OF a weak Boer force which
was neither accommodating nor nj
tempting to carry the position by a
sudden rush, but was evidently seek
ing to draw out the provincial cavalry
after it a few miles, where IL could be
entrapped by larger body in reserve.
These tactics, which had succeeded
after the battle OF Glencoe, failed ON
second trial. Military men in com
menting upon the affair last evening
derived comfort from the practical evil
dence that the British forces were be-
coming more wary and suspicious and
also from the plain admission that the
naval guns were in position. The shell
which scattered the Beers decoys also
dispelled the allusion that Estcourt was
without powerful artillery and incapa-
BILE of defense against a Boer gun fire.
4-le naval brigade was on guard. even
if the three batteries OF field artillery
were barely off the ship. with horses
soft from a protracted voyage.
The news from Lower Natal rs meag-
er since the censorship Is rigldly en-
forced there. But there is strong
probability that the Boer attack upon
Estcourt has been delayed too long Co
be effectual. Military men at the ser
vice clubs breathed freely last night.
and cOntended that the Beers had
missed their last chance in the CAM
paign and would be soon overpowered
by superior numbers and science.
Belated dispatches from the southern
frontier of the Free State only served
to explain why reinforcements had
been sent TO East London. and western
border bulletins, especially from Kim
berley. were so optimistic that "A WAS
difficult to explain why Lord Methucn
had been ordered to relieve Kimberley.
The censorship has been raised In that
quarter and London now knows day by
day what the guards are doing on the
Orange river
The Standard and the Chronicle and
other morning papers have long ac-
counts by mail today from special cor