The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-01-27
DRI7ONS DRIVEN OUT.
Beers Recapture Spion Kop After
a Sharp Night Battle.
THE HEAVY BRITISH LOSSES,

After Seven Days Fishting the Boer
Position Ii stilf Intact, While Gem
eral Buffers Array Is Over Seven
Hundred Men Weaker.
London. Jan. 27.-It is officially an
nounced that the British forces under
General Warren which took Spion Kop,
after easily defeating the small Boer
garrison" have been forced to retire.
The Transvaal troops attacked the
British during the night, and after a
sharp battle forced them to retire.
Spion Kop is now reoccupied by the
Beers.
The news came as shock to Lon
don, which had hardly opened its
eyes after a peaceful sleep over the
reassuring tidings of Thursday re-
counting General Warren's triumph on
Tuesday night. 1t had been generally
reported that the capture Of the place
gave the British the whip hand in the
movement to relieve Ladysmith, and
the fact that it had to be evacuated
was a blow that transfixed the whole
community.
Seven days of fighting have left the
main Boer position intact and General
Buffers army 706 men weaker, accord
ing to the official casualty lists, which
seemingly do not include the Spion
Kop losses, as those last forwarded do
not mention General Woodgate's
death.
England is possessed by depressing
sense OF failure, although not word
in criticism of her generals and SOL
diers is uttered. Not much effort Is
made to place happy construction
upon General Buffers dispatch telling
of the retirement from Spion Kop, and
there is an uneasy impression abroad
that worse news is yet to come.
At one of the military clubs the
statement passed from one member to
another that the war Office had re-
ceiyed an unpleasant supplementary
dispatch from General Butler, which
was being held up for IL hours
Spencer Wilkinson, in The Morning
Post. writes as follows Of the Spion
Kop loss:
This Is serious matter, and an at
tempt will not here be made to min
imize 1t, for no greater wrong can be
done to our people at home than to
mislead them about the Significance
Of the events of war. The right way is
to tell the truth as far as we know It,"
But facts from the neighborhood Of
the Tugela are scantier than ever. The
censorship now is simply prohibitive,
n,,I ~ IL hn
cables. The break on the east coast
lines has been repaired, but the cable
between San Thome and Loanda, on
the west coast, is now interrupted.
More troops" is the only sugges-
ton here as to the way to break the
Boer resistance. Mr.. Wilkinson re-
grets that General Butler has not 20
900 more men, declaring that, II they
would not make victory certain, his
enterprise without them is hopeless.
The Spectator. dealing with the neces-
sity Of large additional military prepa-
rations, says
at may be that we have yet an
other cycle of disasters In front Of u.s."
The transport Assaye arrived at
Cape Town last Friday with 2,127 Of
ficers and men. The first portion Of
the Seventh division is anoat Hence,
with the 10000 men Of this division
and about 5000 others now at sea, it
lies In the power of Lord Roberts to
reinforce Butler heavily. This course
is advised by several military writer's.
Although England's nerves are Sc
verely tried. her nerve is absolutely I'M
shaken, and probably nothing that can
happen in South Africa will change in
the slightest degree her Intentions.
She will continue to receive bad news.
If It comes. with dignity and will
maintain her determination to win at
Iaat