The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-19
BRITISH ADVANCE UPON PRETO-
RIA NOW DELAYED BY THE
HEAVY RAINS
FATE or LUILER AID HARRRg
LONDON NEWSPAPERS CONTINUE
TO WONDER AT THEIR RE-
TENTIoN IN COMMAND
BOTH MAY BE CALLED HOME
BOers Are Preparing for Possible
Retreat Through svvaxiIand-
Burghers Going Forward to
Meet Darlington.

| LONDON, April 19.-Heavy rains impede
! the movements of the British columns,
The blockade of Wepener continues, al
though relief is close. Large quantities
of stores are being moved south from
/ Bloemfontein, which is reversal of the
| course of freight for the past six weeks
| These shipments are made necessary by
the operations in the south of the Free
State.
There are 200 field hospitals, most of the
cases being enteric fever and dysentery.
| With the exception OF these facts, the
! embargo on war news is complete. The
special correspondent sent incomplete dis
patches, which obscure rather than clari-
fly the situation, in the efforts to prepare
matter which will pass the censor. Here
and there a phrase indicates an expect
| ancy that large things are about to hap
pen.
What is about to be done with Sir Red
vers Butler and Sir Charles Warren oc u
pied everybody's attention. The papers
continue to comment earnestly upon Lord
Roberts censure of these commanders.
They ask if more errors are not likely
to occur together with fruitless waste of
life, in the event that men who have
been declared incompetent by their SUI
perior continue to command 10000 troops.
1t is now generally accepted that the gov
ernment had a purpose In the publication
of Lord Roberts dispatch, and that the
recall of Gen: Butler and Gen. Warren
have probably been decided upon
According to Boer reports there is a
steady flow of foreign volunteers to the
Transvaal. Hitherto these adventurers
have been attached to the different COM
mandoes. Now it is said they are to be
formed into separate legion, with for
eign commanders, and it is rumored that
the chief command will be given to dis
tinguished French soldier, who has re-
Gently returned to the Transvaal.
Presumably the officer referred to in
this report is Gen. de Negrier, formerly
member Of the French supreme council
of war, who was removed from the active
list last July by Marquis de Gallifet as
disciplinary measure, as the result of
revelations in the 'Dreyfus court-martial
PREPARING TO RETREAT
The Morning Post has the following
from Bloemfontein, dated Tuesday:
I'm view of the advisability of retreat
through Swaziland, emissaries of the
Beers are now endeavoring to purchase
secret information concerning caverns in
the Graystone. country, which are only
known to the natives, with the object of
accommodating provisions and ammunition.
Large quantities of British forage and
stores were dispatched south yesterday"
DEPLORES DELAY.
| Spencer Wilkinson, in the Morning Post
today, criticises the delay in British often
sive operations caused by Boer raids in
the southern part of the Free State and
the necessity of relieving Wepener. He
regards the raids as designed to recon-
mandeer the surrendered Free Staters
and adds:
'These Boer measures can only be ef-
fectively stopped by defeating and de-
stroying the Boer army in the field. De-
lay in offensive operations is, as rule
equivalent to a victory for the defenders,
and the present general halt has lasted
a long time"
Mr.. Wilkinson proceeds to criticise the
omission to supply the needful remounts,
clothing, boots and stores and the rolling
stock to convey these to B,oemfontein
Precisely the sarne\ reasons, he remarked
have prevented the relief of Mafeking. He
cites Gen. Morgan's raid into Kentucky in
| 1862 as an instance of the probabilities
against the Beers. if the British had a
1