The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-11
''BOBS" is THERE.
Arrival Of Field Marshal Lord
Roberts
At Cape Town, Announced by
the War Office.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
He Is Looked to to Change the
Current Of Events.
Impatience of the Public Has
Not Been Di minished.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS

London, Jan. 11-2:40 p. m.-The an
nouncement of the arrival of Field Mar
shall Lord Roberts and General Lord
Kitchener at Cape Town has failed to
stem the growing impatience at the
prolonged inactivity in the main Brit
ish camps and the entire absence of
news giving an adequate insight to the
local situation. The public and press
being unable to form any just judg-
ment as to the actual position of af-
fairs, stories are rife that inaction is en-
forced on General Butler, owing to the
exhaustion of the reserves Of ammuni-
tion. and there are even wild rumors of
a shell famine at home. But not much
Importance need be attached to these
rumors.
1t is almost universally assumed that
with the landing of Generals Roberts
and Kitchener a prompt return will be
made to the original plan of campaign,
namely a great central advance on
BlOemfOntein, but the most impatient
of the enthusiasts admit that General
Roberts will be unable to move before
the end of the month. Up to the time
of fling this dispatch no news of any
Importance had been received today
from South Africa.
METHUEN RECALLED.
New York Jan. ia dispatch to the
Tribune from London says:
Lord Methuen has been recalled to
England. This statement is made on
the highest authority. 1t is reported
that he was laboring under great men
tai excitement after the battle of Mod
der River and that the war office has
considered it necessary to displace him,
as he is evidently not in condition to
command troops. Two members of his
family are said to be weak minded.
Disappointment and reverses are en-
dured by the Englishmen with fortitude
and grim stoicism, but the utter lack
of trustworthy news from General
Buffers army has been borne with in
creasing signs of impatience and irri-
liability The summon of the ambulance
corps to the front last week after every
available battalion and cavalry troop
had been called into Natal was accepted
as the signal for impending battle, but
when Ladysmith was hard pressed on
Saturday the relieving army was only
capable of making a aharmless reconnais-
sance worthy of a tranquil summers
day manoeuverS at AlderShot. General
Buffers immediate advance was re-
garded as one sequel to the desperate
Boer assault upon LadySmith which
had been well nigh successful. But
three davs have passed in silence if not
in action. Probably no recent exper-
ience has been more trying to the Eng
lish temper than this conspiracy of
silence in NataLwhen every man felt in
his heart that there was time to
lose and that an army of over 10000
British soldiers ought to be moving
with untiring energy and irresistible
force across the Tugela for the deliver
ance of Whites heroic garrison.
The Morning Post has Joined the
Daily Mail in attacking the ministry
and demanding the reconstruction of
the cabinet, but this campaign has not
made any progress outside the newspa-
per offices. The party whips smile in
/ credulously whenever 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
of the English journals, and it has not
yet lost it's presence of mind nat is
| evident to all observers is that the loss
| of Ladysmith without a second at
| tempt at relieving the army across the
| Tugefa would be more discreditable
] than a fresh reverse of Buffers forces
and that public confidence in the GOV
| ernment would be fatally impaired.
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 under the censor
ship he gets little or nothing.