Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-11
Is Puzzling to Englishmen Who
Had Expected to Hear Of
Him Advancing.
ATTACKS ON THE MINISTRY
Are Even More Bitter Than Formerly
1t is Expected That Lord Roberts
Will Make Changes in the Com
rlanding Officers.

New York, Jan. ia Dispatch to the
Tribune from London says: Lord Me-
thuen has been recalled to England. This
statement ia made on the highest author
ity. It Is reported that he was laboring
under great mental excitement after the
battle of Modder river and that the war
office has considered 1T necessary to dis
place him as he is evidently not in condi-
ton to command troops. Two members
Of his family are said to be weak minded.
Disappointments and reverses are en-
dured by the Englishmen with fortitude
and grim stoicism, but the utter lack OF
trustworthy news from Gen. Buffers
army has been borne with increasing
signs Of impatience and irritation. The
summons of the ambulance corps to the
front last week after every available bat
TALON and cavalry troop had been called
intx, Natal, was accepted as the signal
for impending battle, but when Lady
smith was hard pressed on Saturday the
relieving army was only capable aof maxi
ingsa harmless reconnaissance worthy of
a tranquil summers day maneuver at
Aldershot.
General Buffers immediate advance
was regarded as the inevitable sequel to
the desperate Boer assault upon Lady
smith, which had been we'll nigh success
full. But three days have passed in silence
il not in inaction. Probably no recent eX-
perience has been more trying to the Eng
lish temper than this conspiracy of silence
in Natal. when every man has felt in his
heart that there was no time to lose and
90 p,itic icTo a.
diers ought to be moving with untiring
energy and irresistible force across the
Tugela for the deNverance of Whites he
roic garrison.
The Morning Post has Joined the Daily
Mail in attacking the ministry and de-
manding the reconstruction of the cab
met. but this campaign has not made any
progress outside the newspaper offices.
The partisans smile incrdulously when
ever it is suggested that the government
is in danger.
The Standard which has neither hot nor
cold fits, represents the conservative
party more accurately than any other
English journal and it has not yet lost it's
presence of mind. What is evident to all
observers is that the loss of Ladysmith
without a second attempt at relieving the
army across the Tugela would be more
tliscreditable than fresh reverse of Bull
ler's forces and that public confidence in
the government would be fatally IMPAIR
ed.
John Bull Is. indeed, in a bad temper
and in no mood for explanations from any
source. What he wants is news from the
front and he gets little or none. Military
writers for the press have lost their pub
lie and the veterans at the clubs talk
to blank walls when they explain that
Butler set in motion Warren's division
on turning movement east of Colenso,
which depends for success upon secrecy
and that it will probably end in the cap
tlre of a large portion of the Boer forces
Equally Indifferent to details are the
groups of club men gathering about the
croakers who assert that Butler is wait
ing to discover by hook or crook where
the enemy's guns are concealed or to
straighten out his mule transport service
or to get Lord Roberts opinion before
striking another blow. No Englishman
wishes to believe that General Butler IL
waiting for anything except the chance to
defeat the enemy by a strong attack and
strategic combinations.