Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-12-20
WORST OF THE WAR
SUCH WAS THE CLEMENTS DE.
FEAT BY THE Beers.
BRITISH LOSSES OVER 500
But the Afrikanders Mourn the Death
of Gen. Joubert's Son-Enqlish
Are Reported to Have Retired With
Observation-Disclosures Reports of
Situation in South Africa.

London, Dec. 16.-Lord Kitchener
under date of the 18th, reports to the
war office from Pretoria as follows:
elements has come to see me. He
says four companies of the Northum-
berlands held out on the hill as long
as their ammunition lasted. The boer
force attacking the hill was 1000
strong while another force of a thou
sand attacked Clements camp. BY
$40 a. m. the hill Was carried. Rein
forcements of one company of the
4orkshires failed to reach the top.
clements retirement was carried out
with regularity, but, as many native
drivers bolted, a considerable amount
OF transportation was lost. All their
ammunition not taken away was de-
Slroyed. He reports that all behaved
very we'll
"BroadWood has gone to Rustenberg
and supports ELEPHANTS Mex WIN. ch has
Deen reinforced. A flag of truce
which has cone into Commando Mex
with the beers says Joubert's son was
killed. Further reports are that their
losses well very heavy"
Kitchener reports Is officers and 555
men missing from Clements force.
lhey were captured by the beers.
Altchener's supplementary dispatch
demonstrates that the catastrophe is
the worst of the war
The Public Astounded.
The astounding and utterly unex-
pected news of the reverse of the
British at Magaliesberg effectually dis
poses of any hope that the war in south
Africa is nearly ended and completely
abated the myth. that the operations
there are merely of a guerilla nature.
HE extent Of the reverse and the dis
grace OF such large body of men
surrendering to a small contingent of
beers has created a feeling of shame
and establishment which finds free
vent Whoever was responsible for
! the surrender is likely to suffer, for the
new war office officials are determined
TO make examples Of generals or of anv
officers guilty Of such gross misman-
agement or worse, which, it would
seem, must have occurred at this last
| defeat.
In view of events in south Africa. it
IS scarcely surprising that the house
refuses to be cajoled into taking a
burning interest in the Nicaraguan
canal, in spite of special American
cable dispatches which break records
for length and seriousness. The Lon
don Times correspondent makes a pas
slonate comparison between the pres
| ent stage of affairs and that which eX-
listed at the time of the Venezuela dis
pute and bitterly arraigns President
Mckinley and the senate, yet Lord
Pauncefote has not cabled a word to
the foreign office, which only heard of
| the vote on the Davis amendment
through the Associated Press. The for
| elgn office officials, while expecting the
| treaty to be amended, were frankly
| surprised at the size of the majority
which served more than anything else
| to open their eyes to the fact that
there is no truth in the cabled state
ments that railroad interests were
solely responsible for the opposition,
or that irrational jingoism had sud-
denly became epidemic in the United
States. There exists in the foreign
| office the same appreciation of Amer
lean objections to building the canal
and not being allowed to fortify it.