The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-14
ME?HUENl CHECKED BY B0ERS
E1ILS TO TAKE ENElIY,S POSITION
 NEAR MODDER RIVER.

British Losses Heavy-Major-Genera
 Wauchope Among the Killed-Neth
 uen Intrenching in His Position Re
 newed Fighting Expected To-day
 Reports of Gatacre,s and Fremch'
 Novtments-Buller Begins Advnnc.
 on COlcnso.
 London, Dec. 13.-The war office has
 received the following dispatch from
 General Lord Methuen, dated Tuesday
 December 12:
 ''Our Artillery shelled a very strong
 position held by the enemy in long
 high kopje from four until dusk Sun
 day. It rained hard last night. The
 Highland brigade attacked at daybreak
 Monday the south end of the kopje.
 The attack was properly timed, but
 failed. The guards were ordered to pro-
 tect the Highlands right and rear,. The
 cavalry and mounted infantry, with a
 howitzer artillery battery, attacked the
 enemy on the left, and the guards on
 the right, supported by field artillery
 and howitzer artillery. They shelled the position from daybreak, and al 1:15 sent the Gordons to support the High land brigade. The troops held their own in front of the enemy's intrenchments until dusk, the position extending, in cluding the kopje for distance of six miles towards the Modder River. to- day am holding my position and in trenching myself 1 had to face at least twelve thousand men. Our loss was great"
 The war office later received the fol- lowing dispatch from General Forestier- Walker:
 Cape Town, Tuesday, Dec. 12.- Methuen wires that General Wauchope was killed in action yesterday"
 Major General Andrew G. Wauchope of the Black Watch commanded the Highland brigade with General Methu- en's column. He had served in Ashan- ii. Egypt, and the Soudan, and was fre- quently mentioned in dispatches.
 The war office this afternoon received the following message from General Forestier- Walker
 'sCape Town, Tuesday, Dec. 12,-No further details from Methuen. From Orange River it is reported that 2sS wounded, including twenty-seven off, cers, have arrived there from the Mod- der River.
 "Gatacre is moving from Bushman's Hook to Sterkstroom to-day The mag istrate at Sterkstroom wires that the situation there has slightly improved. Many of the missing have turned up. ' sF'rench reports that detachment of cavalry, with two guns of the Horse artillery, reconnoitred the enemy's po- sitfon yesterday at Quilfontein and 4 Vaalkop, eight miles north of Arundel. They shelled farm and drove the enc my from vaalkop The Boer loss was one killed and several wounded. Our casualties. nil
 General Methuen, as expected, follow ed up his artillery attack with general assault on the Boer positions on Mon day, and his report shows that the anx- iety of the public regarding the result ' occasioned by the ominous silence Of the war office, was amply justified. The engagement was evidently of consider able magnitude, and the list of killed and wounded will be proportionate without the compensation which a v1c- tory would have. brought, if, indeed the | affair does not turn out to be a more serious defeat than he admits The | 1t is believed, must have the Boer position more than once, while the fact that the guards were ordered to support the Highland i ers' rear looks as though the Boers may even have outflanked their attack ars. One report declares that General Cron1e attacked the British. The only the British have been able to discover in the disheartening story is in General Methuen's state ner,t that he maintains his position ,]ose to the Boers, thus arousing the none that lie will retrieve the situa- ion.
 Alarm is beginning to be expressed in many quarters as to the situation of General Methuen. The Westminster 1azette says:
 .'If England ever needed victory 1t < now, and it is to Butler, the soldier, ;trong. cool-headed and retlcent that he country looks for this victory"
 The other papers are abusing the gov ,rnment for It's 'complacent optimism" ln0 lnaDIlILy IO SI e1cp eAO 'tiOiiSeii o- he opposition it had to overcome in1 south Africa.
 Considerable significance attaches to 5eneral Methuen's statement that he is himself, indicating fear that he Boers may follow up their advan- age. adopt the offensive and attack i'm. The gravity of the situation from he British point of view is great. Gen. ral Methuen's long lines of communi- ation to DeAar are very vulnerable. ,hould they be cut he will find himself Ii tight place, if only from lack Of upplies.
 The news of the British reverse had ad effect on the stock exchange to-day there there was a general relapse. Kaf- ITS and Rand mines dropped 21s points nd De Beers dropped &. Consols drop ed h point ; As the day progressed and the drib- its of information leaked out the ex- reme gravity of General Methuens po- ition was more fully recognized and he possibility of his isolation created , o small alarm in military circles. It ,as thought in some quarters that he ught to retrace his steps to Orange liver before his lines of communica- . ion were seriously severed. General death was much deplOred.