The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-11
ANGL0-BOER WAR SITUATION
EVIDENCE THAT LONDON OFBI- CIALS ARE WITHHOLDING NEWS.
Complete Silence Has Fallen Upon Af- fairs at the Seat of War for the Present Troops at Ladysmtth Husbandtns Their Amm munit iOn-Hurrted Prepn- ratiOns to Send Seige-Trains-Bu1ler' Campaign Not Likely to Start Before Christmas.

London, Nov il, 4:30 a. m.-Complete
 silence has again fallen upon affairs
 in South Africa. The British public
 must perforce be content with the brief
 stereotyped reports which the censor
 allows to filter through from Cape Town.
 That this condition of things is no
 longer due to pressure of work or de-
 fective cables has been amply proved.
 The Eastern Telegraph company reck-
 ons that the real delay in transmission
 is about two days. It is evident, there
 fore, that the censorship is responsible
 for the other two days of delay which
 seems to befall all the despatches
 Moreover the Daily Telegraph announc-
 es that it's appropriated dispatch
 from Ladysmith, dated Monday, which
 the war office published on Tuesday,
 was not delivered in Fleet street until
 yesterday (Friday) morning. It is be-
 lieved that the war office received fur
 ther dispatches last evening, but noth- ing has been published.
 At banquet in the city of Londcn yesterday the Duke of Cambridge, speaking on the war; said: "We ought never to have allowed ourselves to be in the position in which the outbreak of war found us. I could cry over the valuable lives which might have been spared, had we been better prepared"
 It is said that General Butler never expected to commence the campaign before Christmas and 1t now locks as though this will be the case. Cectain- 1y no artillery can reach Durban before November IA and without additional guns an advance from Escourt would be impossible. No doubt, as Lord Sal isbury said in recent speech, England will ''muddle through it." and yet another illustration of muddling has become apparent in the fact that gun nery instructors have only just arrived at Woolwich arsenal for instruction in eiege train duties. Although hurried preparations are being made to prepare, the siege trains, the fact that the men are at Davenport and the guns at Woolwich seems to show that the idea of the siege train was quite an after thought
 The Morning Post says: What will come of such muddling if we ever come to fighting a foe able to turn it to ad- vantage? Some radical reforms are still needed in our mobilization ar 
 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 is interpreted in some quarters to mean simply that the British are hus padding their ammunition as the Boer fire is only a 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 Boers are planting more guns on the hills surrounding Lady smith. All the correspondents in the beleagured town are safe and anxious to reopen communication"
 A gentleman who visited Nicholson Nek after the engagement counted | twenty-five killed and seventy wound | ad The latest advices from Kimberley | dated November 2 say that all was we'll there then. An explosion has been heard and the supposition is that the Boers have blown up the railway cul- vert south of Dronfield. The Belgian it isN said, has warned pr. Leyds, whose headquarters is at Brus- ,els, that Belgium is neutral coun- ny. A corps of engineers from Gib altar will accompany the siege train o the Cape and the men will be used n mounting the heaviest guns in em- ,rasures Two battalions of mounted infantry, every man selected for his 'iding and shooting qualities, will be sent to the front.