The Portland daily press., 1899-11-11
THE CENSOR TO BLAME
For Lack of News From
South Africa.
Crumblings in England Over the
Conduct Of War.
Beers Planting Guns
About Ladysmith.
DR.. Leyds Notified that Belgium
is Neutral.

Lond on, November 11.-4.s0 o. m.-
Complete silence has again fallen upon
affairs In South Africa. The British
public must psrforcs be content with the
brief, stereotypsd report. which the CEN
sor allows to filter through from Cape
Town. That this condition Of things is
no longer due TO pressure OF work or de-
fectivs cables hes been amply proved.
The Eastern Telegraph company reckons
that the real delay In transmission Is
about two days. II 10 evident. therefore
that the censorship Is responsible for tine
other two days Of delay which seem to
bsfall oil the dispatches. Moreover, the
Daily Telegraph announces that ita sap
propriated despatch from Ladysmith, dat
cd Monday, which the war offioe putt
lished on Tuesday, was not delivered
In Fleet street until yesterday (Fridsy)
morning. 1t 10 believed that the war
oifios resolved further Dispatches last
evening, but nothing has been publ shed.
At banquet In the city Of London yes
terday, the Duke Of Cambridge speaking
on the war. said:
eve ought never to have allowed our
selves to be in the position in which the
outbreak of wsr found us. could CRY
over the valuable lives which might have
Dssn zen. spared had we been better pre-
It is said that Gen. Butler never ex.
pected to commence the campaign before
Christmas: and tt now looks as though
this will be the case. Certainly no artil-
lery san reach Durham before November
IA, and without additional guns, an ad-
49, N.xxx. .raat-
BILE. No doubt, a. Lord Salisbury saio
In n recent speech, ENGLAND will mud
dls through it," and yet another nlustra-
| tion Of IN uddiing has become apparent In
the fact that gunnery instroctors have
only just arrived st weolwich arsenal
| for Instruction In seige train duties Al
though hurried preparations are being
made to prepare the siege trains. the fact
that men are ut Devonport and the guns
at Moolwich seem 70 show that the idea
Of the siege train was quite an after
thought.
The Morning Post says:
"What will come Of such muddling. II
We ever come to lighting fos able 70
turn 10 to advantage? Some radical re-
forms are still needed In our mobilization
arrangeinsn's."
The statement from Ladysmitn that tn
British guns do not reply TO the boe
| artillery because the concrete beds 10
| the guns have not yet hardened, 10 In
| terpreted In some quarters to mean simp-
| Iy that the British are husoanding their
am IN unition as the Boer hre Is onlJ u
trick to get the British to waste shells.
Among the few items that have arrived
from the Cape today Is one saying that
| the Beers are planting mora guns from
the hills surrounding Ladysmith. All
the correspondents In the beleagured town
are ssfs and anxious to re- open oommu-
nioation.
A gentleman who visited Nicholson 8
Mex after the engagement, counted 20
killed and 20 wounded.
The latest advioes from Kimberley,
dated Novsn Der I'd, say that all was well
there then. An explosion has been heard
and the supposition was that the boers
had blown up the railway ouivert south
Of Dronfield.
Ihs Belgian government, 1t Is said,
has warned DIR. L3yds, whose headquar-
ters is at Bruss lis. that belgium Is nsu-
trail country.
!: A oorps OF e,gin sers fiom Gibr ,ltar will
accompany the siege train to the Cape,
and the men will be used In mounting
the heavisst gans. Two battalions OF
mounted infantry, every man selected
for his riding and shooting qualities, will
be sent to the front.