St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-02-14
WAR in THE TRANSVAAL.

London, Feb. 13.-There Is en- ominous
Iull in the dispatches from South Africa,
and once more London is beginning to
get anxious about Butler.
The stories from Durham and Pretoria
yesterday to the effect that Joubert was
moving with big force to outfank him
have created great deal of uneaslness'
especially taken in connection with the
gloomy dispatches sent by the CORE
spondents in Natal.
The general belief now is that all
northern Cape Colony is in danger. Jou-
bert is reported to have at least 6Ooo men
in the body which is said to have crossed
the Tugela near Colenso. Should he be
able to capture Chievely and Frere,
Butler would be cut off from his TWO
most important bases and from his rail-
road lines.
A comparatively small force would
then be able to hold Butler in checK,
while the main body would advance
south and menace Pietermaritzburg and
Durham. Already strong force mas
been reported marching through Zulu
land with the same objective in view.
Yesterday Lord Roberts announced
the appointment of General ColVllle,
hitherto commander of the guards
brigade. to the command of the ninth
division. which is being formed and Will
consist probably to a great extent OF
| colonial troops. General Colville will be
succeeded by General Reginald Pole
| Carew.
Lord Roberts tells the correspondents
! that when he gets down to business they
shall have ample opportunity to SEND
news. His chief press censor yesterday
issued new rules and in future all written
communications are to go unchecked.
! Only kilograms will be censored. For
} the next few days little news is likely to
get through, but later there will be more
freedom. Thus says the censor, and the
last clause may be interpreted to mean
that something is about to happen.
Kimberley, 20 miles away from the
Modder River position, is in sore straits.
Details of the December death rate
shows that in a population of $4,000
whites and $4,000 blacks the mortality
was 60 whites and 1873 blacks per thou
sand. The infantile death rate was GIL
per thousand among the whites and 912
per thousand among the blacks. Enteric
fever was prevalent.
This frightful state of things in De-
cember cannot have improved much, if
at all, since, and the fighting power of
the garrison must have been greatly
diminished.
Meanwhile the bombardment by the
Beers has increased and there is i'm
minent danger of the town falling under
the very eyes of Lord Roberts. 1t is be-
lieved in circles close to the war office
that he will move at once. Scouts have
approached within 1000 yards of the Boer
intrenchments at Magersfontein. hey
have found these strong and ascertained
that they are used as dwelling places
Naval gunners are constantly WATCHING
the enemys lines with strong glasses
and they declare that there is an ap-
preciable diminution in the Boer forces
In Natal the Boer commanders south
of the Tugela occupy Bolds farm anC
several mines west of Chieveley. Two
thousand Beers, with three guns, are ad-
NdHClIS lOWd Natal
The war office is making preparation
to continue the stream of troops fol
South Africa. Four large steamers hav,
been chartered. Japan agrees to let thu
Armstrong; transfer to England fou
naval quick firers that were built for hel
: consenting to wait for the execution o
her own order until the hostilities IL
South Africa are over. Several Euro
pean powers, by similar consents as t.
guns being constructed by Vickers Sons
and Maxim, enable England to secur
100 Maxims.
Two thousand men are constantly EN-
< ployed at Woolwich arsenal; and all til
2 gun and ammunition factories are work
: ing night and day to execute govern
ment orders. The weekly output of fou
= firms Is 100000 rounds.