Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-09
L3dySmith Cannot Hold Out
Much Longer.
LACK OF AMMUNITION
This Will Prevent Gen. White From
Aiding Gen. Butler if the Latter
3 Makes an Attempt to Relieve the
Town At Once.

White still holds out, or did SO 60 hours
ago, when the Beers, ousted from their
foothold inside the works, suspended
their assault al nightfall. England has
taken heart. The situation. however, is
worse. The beleaguered force must have
expended large amounts of ammunition,
however, which mo 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 Beers.
General White still needs relief, and
the difficulties confronting General
Butler are as great az before. The for
mer's unadorned sentences, as read n
re-read, suggests e%loquently the peril in
which the town vas for 48 hours, and
how barely able his 5000 men were to
keep from being overcome.
The chief concern for General White is
IL respect to ammunition. Sixty-eight
days ago, at the beginning of the siege.
his small ammunition was vaguely de-
scribed as plenty" His artillery then
had 300 round per gun. Some of the
batteries have been in action frequently
since then and all were probably en-
gagged last Saturday. His stock of shells,
consequently, must be low, and this will
make it difficult for General White to
cooperate in a movement with General
Butler. The entertainments at Lady
smith, as described in a message that
left a day or two before the fight and has
Just come through, are fortified hills,
we'll covered with rifle pits and trenches.
down which the infantry move in single
file to the various posts in absolute
safety. Full ratiOns are still served, but
no whisky or
N Mr.. Spencer Wilkinson. in the Post,
points out that there is one division only
at Chieveley. another at Frere, and a
third at Estcourt. AS Chieveley is seven
miles from Colenso. the second division
would have had to march - miles to get
into action, and the third division %
miles. General Buffers 10000 men and
heavy guns therefore We're almost mac
tive on Saturday, Inc when General
White photographed General Butler could
really make no move but an ineffective
demonstration.
% transports will be on the way to South
Africa during the present month. Ac-
cording to h programme, $4,000 addi-
tional troops and u guns will soon be
afloat. The government has ordered
Vickers Sons & Maxim, limited, to man.
ufacture as many AZ and 6-inch quick
firers as a 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 am
munition goes to Ras Jibeutil, from
which point it is conveyed by dhows
along the oas or trans-shipped to ves-
sells bound for Portuguese ports in East
Africa. French steamers touching at
Ras Jibeutil before reaching Alden, con-
trive to avoid search by trans-shipping
at Madagascar to steamers apparently
not connected with European lines. In
this way they escape suspicion"
The Times publishes the following,
dated January 6, from MOdder river:
"News from Belmont shows that the
c~annonading is so brisk in that section
hat the Free State territory across the
border a been deserted by the Boers.'
Lord Dunraven in the Times this morn
ing returns to his arraignment Of the
val department for the inferiority of
British artillery. He says:
ut is useless for the government to
contend that u artillery Is equal to
that of foreign nations. since the Beers
have longer range mobile guns"
Wernheit. Belt & CO.. diamond mer-
chants, have donated ESQ, 900 to the fund
for the equipment of the yeomanry.