The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-01-16
BRIT0NS CROSS RIVER /
Smelling the Boer Positions on the
Big Tugela.
THE Beers SUPERIOR FORCE.

| 1t Is Larger Than the Combined Ar.
mics of Butler and whfte-Fres
State Calls Out All Able Bodied
Men-Fresident Kruxer's Charge.
London, Jan. 16.-The Standard
gives prominence to the following dis
patch, dated Saturday, Jan. 13, from
Durham: A man who has Just arrived
here from Springfield says that .
British column. proceeding to the re-
lief of Ladysmith, has crossed the Lit
tie Tugela. When he left It was facing
the Boer position on the Big Tugela,
and q howitzer was Smelling the Boer
trenches. He says also that 27O waS-
ons, laden with commissariat stores
for Ladysmith, had left Frere. and Il
was expected that the column would
join hands with General White Mon
day evening. The traction engines
have been doing excellent work In
hauling heavy wagons out of holes and
swamps. This they accomplish with
the greatest ease. British patrols have
rection of Ennersdale, between Frere
and Eastcourt.
General Buffers latest authentic
word as to what he and his 10000 men
are doing was wired from Springfield
after his first forward step Striving
to think out the unknown, London u
confused by surmise and rumor and
disquiet by suspense. Spencer Wilkfi-
son, the lucid military expert of Tbs
Morning Post, asserts that the Boer
force in northern Natal Is larger than
General Buffers and Sir George
Whites together, so that the Beers
are able to leave force around Lady
smith larger than that within the town
and yet to oppose General Butler with
force superior to his own.
Reports from the Boer camps affirm
that the circle of investment has been,
drawn closer by the occupation Of
some hills nearer the town, thus libef-
ating reinforcements to oppose Gem
eral Butler.
The correspondent of The Times at
Lourenzo Marques, telegraphing last
Saturday, says: The Free State has
now called out every available man,
including the leading merchants who
ldu cApCClSu " CuJOy
J. B. Robinson, the South African
millionaire, in signed article in The
Daily News this morning, relates con-
versations he has had with President
Kruger, and describes several inter-
views In which the Jameson raid was
talked over. On one of these occasions
President Kruger said:
do you mean to tell me that you do
not know that the men who organized
and engineered the raid organized IL
for their own benefit? They had de-
cided how they would divide the
Transvaal and how each OF the par
this country. Many reformers who
were put in jail were perfectly inno-
cent. They were ignorant of the
schemes Of the men in the inner circle.
There were only IL men in that inner
circle, and they were to divide the
Transvaal among themselves. They
and their companions found the money
for the raid. Do you think we are so
innocent as not to know that Rhodes,
speaking, held pis-
toll at the heads of certain men in Eng
land and said to them; If you do
not support me ! shall denounce you
and your completely In the raid"
French War Material For the Beers.
London, Jan. 16.-The Daily Mail
publishes the following from a special
at lie Creuzot, France:
AFTER two days inquiry do not hesi-
tate to assert that the Schneider COM
pany is not only working night and
day in the manufacture Of guns and
for the Beers, but that IL
has already packed, ready for ship.
ment to the Transvaal, six heavy guns
Of large caliber. The workmen told
me that ere long 80 additional guns
would be dispatched to the Boers.'