The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-12-18
ROBERTS TO COMMAND.
The Baron Ordered to Lead British
Troops in South Africa.
KITCHENER HIS CHEF OF STAFF,
Queen Victoria, For the First Time
in Many Years, Has Decided to
Spend the Christmas Holidays

| VuecM shctOThu, uhc Tume
in Many Years, Has Decided to
Spend the Christmas Holidays
Away From Osborne House.
| London, Dec. 1S.-Shortly before
midnight the following notice was
posted at the war office;
"As the campaign in Natal, in the
opinion of her maJesty's government
is likely to require the presence and
undivided attention of General Sir
Redvers Butler, 1t has been decided to
send Baron Roberts OF Kandahar and
| Waterford as commander-in in
South Africa, with Lord Kitchener as
| chief of staff
| The war office has received the fol-
lowing dispatch dated Dec. II, from
| General Forestier-Walker at Cape
| Town:
"Methuen reports that Lieutenant
Chandos Pole-Gell was taken prisoner
last Thursday when going to meet a
flag of truce. He was waving his
handkerchief in response and was un-
armed. Gatacre has removed his troops
and stores to Sterkstrom from Putters
Kraal. French has established head
quarters at Arundel. Vandermerwe,
with command, is reported moving
south from Jacobsdal."
Lieutenant General Sir Charles War
rem, commanding the Fifth division of
the First army corps. has arrived at
Cape Town. 1t is understood that he
will proceed to Port Elizabeth.
No further news has been received
regarding the battle at the Tugela
river, in which the British losses are
placed at 1097. The latest accounts
regarding the battle at Magersfontein
show that the retirement of the Brit
ish troops was executed with the great
est GOODNESS and order under heavy
Boer artillery fire on Tuesday.
Mafeking was safe on Dec. 6, and
Colonel Baden-P Powell, the British COM
mander there, is still actively pushing
out his defenses At that time the
Beers had offered to exchange Lady
Sarah Wilson, who was captured while
acting as correspondent for the Lon
don Daily Mail for General Ben Viii
joen, who was captured at Eland-
slaagte, but the offer had been declined.
The other beleaguered garrisons and
positions are still holding out.
1t is said that if the Victoria Cross
were to be granted for every act of
conspicuous gallantry on the part Of
British troops it would be necessary
to distribute the decoration by hun
dreds.
Queen Victoria has decided to remain
at Windsor Castle for the present. Not
for years before has the queen decided
to spend Christmas away from Os-
borne. Her decision to remain at
Windsor in touch with the cabinet, is
a measure Of the gravity of the crisis
and of the anxiety her majesty feels
for the welfare of the country. She
is, nevertheless, in fair health Sat-
urday morning she took her usual
drive, and Just before dinner that even
ing she received Lord Wolseley, who,
with Major General Sir Henry Peter
Ewart, crown equerry to the queen,
dined at Windsor.
The queens graceful act in present.
ing flag to the American hospital
ship Maine is highly appreciated by /
her own people, as we'll as by the
Americans in London, and the morn
ing papers express the hope that the
incident means something more than
pretty ceremony.
BLACK week." as last week is now
universally called, has evidently arous-
ed the government and the war office
to the full sense of their responsibility
and of the magnitude Of the task be-
fore them. The papers unanimously
applaud this awakening. despite the
fact that they recognize that the heroic
measures now decided upon SAVIOR of
weakness rather than of strength.
Rumor has 1t that the question of
expense has really been at the bottom
of the healf hearted measures hitherto
adopted, and it is not unlikely that Sir
Michael Hicks-Beach, chancellor of the
exchequer, and other members of the
cabinet will resign.
1t was high time that something
very energetic was done. The British
losses in killed, wounded, prisoners
and missing throughout the campaign
now reach the enormous total of 1880.
The tragic circumstances of the ap-
pointment Of Lord Roberts almost
with the announcement
Of the death Of his promising son ex-
cite the deepest public sympathy Lieu
tenant Roberts was an only son, and
had been his fathers aide de-camp
since 1895. He served in Wazristan
md in the Chitral and Nile expeditions
Such was his display of gallantry on
Friday In an attempt to rescue the
guns that he was recommended for the
Victoria Cross.
Secret meetings Of Boer sympathiz-
'rs continue to be held In various parts
IF Cape Colony, and the attitude of
he Dutch farmers Is truculent.
The Times. commenting on the sit
Iation, says Neither the Crimean
war nor the Indian mutiny gave rise
% greater dangers to the empire than
hat with which we are now menaced,
lor at either of those critical periods
was Great Britain so isolated POLITICAL
y or regarded with such dislike and
'uspcion as are now almost every
where apparent. We are fighting not
merely for supremacy in South Africa,
)ut our position as great power. We
trow we have miscalculated the
strength of the foe, and we are resolv-
ID to make that misca lculation good"