The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-09
ANGL0-BOER WAR SITUATION
GEN. WHITES POSITION MORE
 CRITICAL THAN EYER.

His Supply of Ammunition Probably
 Very short-No Possible Way of Re-
 plsnishing It Until the Siege Is Raised
 -May Find 1t Difficult to Co-operate With BulIer-England Preparing
 Fresh Armaments--25,0 900 Additional
 Troops and scvcnty-two Guns WiII
 Soon be Ahoat.
 London, Jan. 9.--3:45 a. m.-GeneraI White still holds out, or did so sixty hours ago, when the Boers, busted from their foothold inside the works, sus- pended their assault at nightfall. Eng land has taken heart. The situation, however, is worse. The beleagured force must have expended a large amount of ammunition, which cannot be replenished. and must have lost a number of officers and men, which is counterbalanced, so far as the garrison is concerned by the greater loss of the Boers. General White still needs relief and the difficulties confronting General Butler are as great as before. The for mer unadorned sentences, as read and re-read suggest eloquently the peril in which the town was for fourteen hours and how barely able his 5000 men were to keep from being overcome.
 Garrison short of ofAmmunttion.
 The chief concern of General White is in respect to ammunition. Sixty-eight days ago, at the beginning of the seige, his small arm ammunition was vaguely described as plenty" His artillery then had 300 rounds per gun Some of the batteries have been in action ire quently since then and all were prob- ably engaged last Saturday. His stock of shells, consequently, must be low and this will make it difficult for Gen eral White to cooperate in a move ment by General Butler.
 Entrcn h men,s strong.
 The entrenchments at Ladysmith, as described in a message that left day or two before the fight, and has just come through are fortified hills, well covered with rifle pits and trenches down which the enemy move in single
  safety. Full rations are still served out, but no whisky or tobacco
 Location of BuIler's Army.
 Spencer Wilkinson, in the Morning Post, points out that there is one div- | sion only at Cheveley, another at Ere | re and a third at Estcourt. As Chieve ley is seven miles from Colenso the second division would have to march { twelve miles to get into action and the third twenty-two miles, General Bull . CTS 30,000 men and seventy guns were therefore almost inactive on Saturday, | and when General White photographed | General Butler could really make no | move but an ineffective demonstration. |
 Fresh Armaments Preparing.
 England is preparing fresh arma- ments, and twenty-two transports will | be on the way to South Africa during l the present month. According to the | programme 25, 000 additional troops and | seventy-two guns will soon be af1oat. ! The government has ordered Vickers' Sons and Maxim, limited, to manufac- ture as many AZ inch and inch quick | firers as can be turned out until other wise notified.
 The Boer agents according to the | Cairo correspondent of the Daily Mail, are evading British vigilance respecting the importation of ammunition. The correspondent says: "A large quantity of quick firing ammunition goes to Ras Jibeutil, from which point it. is conveyed by scows along the coast or trans-shipped to vessels bound for Por- tuguese ports in East Africa. French steamers touching at Ras Jibeutil be- fore reaching Alden contrive to evade search by trans-shipping at Madagas- car to steamers apparently not connect ed with European lines In this way they escape suspicion.
 Coioninl Troops Active.
 The Times publishes the following, dated January 6, from Modder River: ''News from Belmont shows that the Queensland and Canadian volunteers have been so energetic in that neigh borhood that large belt of the Free State across the border has been desert ed by the Boers"
 Lord Dunraven in the Times this morning returns to his arraignment of the war department for the inferiority of British artillery. He says: "It is useless for the government to contend that our artillery is equal to that of for eign nations since the Boers have long range mobile guns.' Messrs. Wornher Belt & Co.,, diamond merchants, have donated $50,000 to the fund for the equipment of the Yoeman- ry It is understood that the war office has received some figures on the cas- ualties in the Saturday attack upon Ladysmith, but not the list itself. These have not yet been made public. f SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT. Timo Fixed for the Transports to Leave
 HaItfpx.