The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-29
ROBERTSONHOSPITALS
General Replies to Charges of
Scandal.
HE TELLS OF VICTORIES
THE BRITISH WIN TWO SMALL
FIGHTS WITH BoERS.

London, June 2S.-The war Office has
issued correspondence with Lord Rob
erts regarding the charges of Mr.. Bur-
dett-Coutts of a scandal in the hospi-
tals. June 4 his attention was called in
brief kilograms to the allegations and
also to other complaints of a general
breakdown in the hospital system. Two
days later he replied in part as fol-
lows:
THE principal medical officer report
ed that arrangements at Kroonstad
were in all respects in good order and
Lord Methuen said they were thorough
~ satisfactory. I was deeply distressed
at being unable to make suitable ar
rangements for the sick on our first ar
rival at Kroonstad, but it is obvious
that certain amount of suffering is
inseparable from the rapid advance of
a large army into the enemy'S coun-
try"
June 20 the war Office cabled Lord
Roberts that disquieting reports regard
in <A.le hospital were accommodating and
askeS him if anything could be done.
a&d particularly, how many nurses
were needed. June % Lord Roberts re-
piled, saying that he did not wish to
shirk responsibility or to screen the
he suggested a committee of inquiry.
He said there had been an abnormal
number of sick at BlOemfontein, due to
the eXhauSting nature of the march
and the terribly unsanitary condition
of the camp at Paardenburg, where the
only water available for drinking flow
ed from the Boer camp, higher up,
where the river was crowded with de-
composing animals, and also with a
considerable number of wounded, after
the fight on March 10.
To imDrovise accommodations at
Bloemfontein for such a number, which
had become 1000 before he left Bloem-
fOntein, was no easy task, said Lord
Roberts. No tents were carried and the
public buildings had to be turned into
hospitals. In three months there had
been $3.50 admissions to the hospitals or
patients suffering from enteric fever,
while the deaths numbered 1870 about
Il per cent.
Lord Roberts observed that he did
not know whether this would be an alb
normal rate in civil hospitals in peace
times; but, if the rate were abnormal,
, it was due to the exhausted state of
the men, and not to the neglect of the
medical corps.
Tells of Two Victories.
Lord Roberts has sent bulletins of
two small fights, occurring on June 20
and q. in which the Beers We're dis
cOmfitted. In a dispatch from Pretoria,
dated yesterday, he says:
"A small force of mounted troops,
with two guns, commanded by Lieuten-
ant Colonel Dreiper, was attacked by
the enemy, under Prefers and Mel, on
the morning of June 26, seven miles
north of Senekal. They beat off the
enemy and burned their Iaager. The
casualties were three wounded and ten
killed.
Hunter, temporarily commanding
Ian Hamilton's brigade, made one
march yesterday from Heidelberg to-
ward Frankfort, without meeting any
opposition.
1.-THE enemy attacked our Roodval
Spruit post on the railway yesterday,
but were easily beaten off by a de-
tachment OF the Derbyshire light in
fantry, the West Australian mOunteds,
a fifteen-pounder and an armOred train.
'Baden-POwell reports the capture of
an influential BOer named Ray, who
was endeavoring to raise a commando
in the Rustenburg district. A patriot
brought in over 100 rifles. More than
1000 rifles and 1000 inferior have been
taken during the last few days. He
states that thirty Beers have arrived
at Rustenburg, going to their homes
from Delarey's commando. They would
have left before if they had seen the
proclamation, which was carefully
withheld by Boer authority"
Lord Roberts says that Wednesday,
June q, was a record market day in
Pretoria, for Boer farmers selling pro-
duce. Parties of Roers still hang on
Buffers tanks. F. r. Burnham, the
! American scout, is invaded.