The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 29, 1899, Page 1

The Call VOLUME LXXXV§— SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1899—' HIRTY-TWO PAGES PRICE ¥IVE CENT Skirmishing Force Sent ©ul by General White Encounters the Transvaal Troops Near Lady- smith, and Later Bivouacs for a Second Engagement--The Brit- ish Must Soon Face:the lnvading Boers in a Decisive Battle. CAPE TOWN, Oct. 29.—The second battalion of the Gordon Highland- ers, the First Devonshires, First Manchesters, First Liverpools, Second Dubiin Fusileers, Liverpool Mounted Infantry, Fifth Lancers, Fifth Dra- goons, Eighteenth Hussars, Natal Volunteers, mounted battery and four field batteries proceeded las! night to Lombardskop from Ladysmith. A squadron of Hussars located the Boers, who opened fire with shells and rifles. Two horses were shot and one trooper wounded. The Boers occupied a strong position at De Waais Farm, and the mounted in- fantry failed to draw them out. As nothing could be gained by another alttack the column bivouacked and the Boers retired to Rietfontein. The battle will be resumed to-day. 28 C Oct African war has now been in progress nearly thres weeks, and so far the British arms d with momentary successes, though at a cost wbich verifies President Kruger's pre- stagger humanity. But though victory has fallen to Great Britain whenever and mount importance, General White's position to-day is scarcely more reassuring war. So far he has only shown his ability to outwit by strategy the Boers' strategy. h praise from the British military critics. Now he appears to have reached the limit of le to prevent the massing of the Boer columns, and must either meet the enemy’s ople think General White should rest content with the successes so far achieved and v able to move his forces quickly and without deterioration. It erring rather to hold Ladysmith, though against much superior general intends to follow the latter course that creates uneasiness, e that the same result can be achieved over the Boers when The € g that t e not believed to in ment about Ladysmith the fate of Kimberley and Mafeking and the progress of gnificant. The rapidity of the Boer advance and the tenacity of the neral White have proved clearly that the Boers' plans were matured long gh they may be unable to stand before the brilliant charges of the s skill of thelr opponents, they are a moblle force and operate harmoni- an of campaign. est idea of what dition will confront the British army corps upon its arrival in g force whose duty will be to wipe out the defeat of General White and the capture t simply be a walkover into Pretoria, dispersing Boer bands disintegrated by the 1 by constant reverses? These questions are uppermost in the minds of all con- 4 the last troopship should have salled, but the army corps will scarcely take ere is a lull In the departure of the troops forming the army corps, owing, the e troops not being ready. SIGNIFICANT | cabs were to be seen running all about | agined, even after the arrival of Sir Red- | the West End with richly uniformed |vers Buller and his big army. ung officers hurrying on thelr prepara- | Fven In Parliament all is silent agata \NORDS OF QUEEN ons and paying last visits to their |and members have been released from TO PARL!AMENT; friends. Now these officers are at sea, | their duties to depart whither they will. m any of them no doubt going to their | Parllament has had a short but stirring unless, of course, as some think, |Session, It is very remarkable that it has the war will be over before many more | been the shortest sesslon of the Britisa weeks have passed. But that, according | Parliament for exactly five centuries. It to military authorities, is very unlikely. | was on September 30, 1399, that the short- They think the war is not going to be | est Parliament and the shortest session such a walk-over as was at first im. | were held. Parliament sat for only a sin- s and NO EUROP N COALITION AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN Neither Germany, France Nox. Russia s af Present in a Position to Interfere in the South African W arfare. Special Cable to The Call and the New York Herald. Copyrighted, 1899, by James Gordon Bennett. —New York cables inform us that England is threatened with a European coalition. Correspondents of American yellow journals are evidently trying to earn their ARIS, Oet. 2 salaries. Little is heard of this crazy scheme here. No one European statesman wastes an instant over it. Even if the desire existed the moment is not ripe for a successful realization of at desire. Europe is busy with its own affairs. A boycott of England by the powers is no more a question of practical politics now than when Catherine of Russia conceived the idea, or ‘when h 1 T ut it into operation. A certain section of the press of different countries tries to > matter. It is the same section that tried to set Europe against America during the and failed. It will fail now against England. The public is indifferent. Statesmen re- 1 cannot be brought to her knees. present Continental Europe can neither interfere nor offer to mediate. ~ Nor have the I y idea of doing so either. They know that England would reject even the most cour- nted offers of arbitration, if accompanied by a veiled threat that the war would be- What nation wishes for that? Not Germany. The Kaiser’s sole ambition at present is to develop a powerful navy. He is not seeking a quarrel. On the contrary, he is evidently convinced that the f of Germany necessitates cordial relations with England until he is fully pre- I to follow a different line of conduct. Commercial rivalry between the two countries is not yet so acute as to render war absolutely necessary. \ ot France. Her financial existence is bound up in the success of the exposition. The mere cost of preparatory mobilization would be overwhelming at present. If any European coali- tion were to be more than a pasteboard display, that preparatory mobilization would - become an instant duty, and temporary ruin would result. ia does not dream of interference. Her trans-Siberian railway is too vital an under- jcopardized. Her Far Eastern policy is more important to her than the fate of the African republic, for, remember, if England absorbs the Transvaal, it will only be in imita- t the Dutch did with Java, Russia with Finland, Germany with Alsace-Lorraine and Holstein, and France with Madagascar. 8 The conquest of one people by another has been excused if the conqueror brings with him ation and progress, law and order. So no European nation can throw the first stone at Eng- 1 on the score of the probable final disposition of the Transvaal, They will be more likely to observe a very strict neutrality and try to share in the profits when the conflict is ended. As in the case of Japan after the war with China, the American yellow journals are only re- peating the shrieks of the European yellow press when they send rumors of a European coalition, The powers cannot combine. Dual and triple alliances would never unite, for .England could make it more profitable for either to have her help against the other. She is the weight to turn the scales. The calling out of her naval force now is not a threat, but a hint. It is accepted as such. It indicates that the Transvaal campaign leaves her still free to cover the seas with her swarm of warships, fully armed and manned. The hint is not likely to be lost. France remains quiet before it. Her Mediterranean squadron is left in the Levant. You may be sure that it would be recalled quickly ifia coalition was in the air. c 1- lanc [ GoveErRNMENT BUILDING S | PRETORIA. st i} S I R R R e R S e ama GRIQULA TowN o N inorcares POSITION OF BOERS QU THEIR DWN TERIR—%Q»« the Modder River north to Pitsani, terial advance into Cape Colony. some 300 miles. + @ * Q + L4 * ¥ } 4 b + bs * s + 2 * 2 s & + £ + B¢ 9 3 ° * ® . 5 t ) 0400000606000+ 00000600600000s0e0sbe0el- 0006006600460 466000040600000060606060400 HE STERN EATEATO PRETORIA X FORT BELL.SRITISH POST, BASUTO LAND,ON THE STATE BORDER. U’; ?~“P‘R\T o BRITONS AND BOERS RENEW BATTLE % E Line San, Map of the Scene of Hostilities, Showing the Status of Affairs After Eight Days of Fighting. above Mafeking. BELGIANS SYMPATHIZE WITH FIGHTING BOERS Special Cable to The Call and the New York Herald. Copyrighted, 1899, by James Gordon Bennett. BRUSSELS, Oct. 28.—1 am able to assert that the British Government has expressed to the Belgian Government its regret at the tone of Belgian public opinion regarding the Anglo-Boer war. The press has almost unani- mously taken sides against England. Subscriptions are being taken up for the Boer wounded exclusively, and some isolated outrages, such as paint- ing the words “Blood, blood, Boer blocd” on the doors of the British Con- sulate at Antwerp, have occurred. The truth is that before the war the Belglans, who framed their constitutions and customs much on English Iines, had marked leanings toward Great Britain, whose examples they gen- erally eulogized, rightly or wrongly. However, half of the Belgians being Flemish, they sympathize with the African Dutchmen because they are of the same race. Apart from this it may be asserted that the King and the Belglan Government authorities' are much annoyed at the demonstrations, which, although they are not symptomatic of Anglophobla, but merely sig- nify compassion for the weaker belligerent, may be considered unfriendly in Downing street and bring about some coolness in Anglo-Belgian relations and possibly injure the interests of Belgium in different parts of the world, especially in the East African lake district, where the British and Belgians are in touch. C00COCCOONDOO000O [ 0000000000000 0000000000000000000000 0000000000020 gle day, and when it deposed Richard IT it wae dissolved. A new one was called six days afterward when Henry IV mounted the throne. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's budget to raise supplies was so non-committal that it is ecarcely open to much criticism. ‘Whether £11,000,000 borrowed to carry on the war will be entircly repaid by addi- tional taxation, or whether the Boer treasury will be sapped to repay part or the whole, {5 a matter upon which little light is likely to.be thrown until Parlia- ment reassembles in February. But the more important of the features in the recent session is the Queen's pro- rogation speech, for it contains the asser- tion that the Transvaal is already part of her empire. The phraseology ‘passed by almost unnoticed, but the sentence, “I trust that divine blessing will rest on the efforts to restore peace and good govern- ment to that portion of my empire,” can- not be taken to mean anything but that Great Britain regards the Transvaal re- verted to her direct sovereignty. Another interesting point of the speech was that the war was referred to as “mil- itary operations.” The embarkation of 21,00 ~men, 1000.| horses and seven batteries of artillery, with the wagons and equipment, between October 20 and 24 is pointed to as being a splendid feat on the part of the admiral- ty, not forgetting, however, to also give credit to the army for having the men ready at the dock. Lieutenant Commander Colwell, the United States naval attache here, who closely watched the embarkation of the troops at Southampton, said on the sub- Ject: “It was a splendid sight. Everything was done in good order. On each trans- port a naval lleutenant was in command and on the dock a naval officer super- vised the whole. The army officers had their men lined up and a staff sergeant passed along the ranks, chopping eight- een men off at a time, thus forming messes. Marching on board, they found everything prepared for them.” Sir Charles Dilke, writing to the Speaker, draws attention to the gigantic cost of the mobilization of a compara- tively small army. He says: “Though the War Office professes to be pleased with the result of the mobilization, they took far longer to complete the arrange- ments than the maximum period allowed by other powers.” Continuing, Sir Charles declared that the present system was entirely wrong. x l wo@o@«’?;@o—@o@orwéoo In Natal on the east, after four sharp engagements, the Boers have forced the British to retreat from Dundee and concentrate all their available troops, about 15,000, in the vicinity of Ladysmith, where a heavy battle may be begun at any momex}t. On the west the Boers have invested and are still besieging Mafeking and Kimbeérley and have possession of every important point from In the south along the Orange River border they have destroyed or occupied the railroad bridges and other crossings, but made no ma- In the north the British force, under Colonel Plumer, is reported to have gained some advantage over the Boers of the Zautpansberg commando, at Rhodes’ drift (shown on small inset map), but nothing definite is yet known of the matter. The British have so far acted on the defensive, and made no advance into Boer territory. It is possible that Sir Redvers Buller will make East London or Port Elizabeth his port of landing for the invasion of the Orange Free State, as they are nearer to the border than Cape Town by PAT D e R S S o an o A o e S e o B e e B o i St o o S S o o 2 2 o-+o@ L O R GRCaR SR, OSSR S HETIC SCENES AT BRITISH WAR OFFICE Special Cable to The Call and the New York Herald. Copyrighted, 1899, by James Gordon Bennett. LONDON, Oct. 28.—A few days ago, a special cable to the Herald told of the pathetic scenes outside the War Office among the crowds awaiting the lists of casualties as they were posted up. Every day it is the same. The Pall Mall has indeed become a street of mourning, and every day are to be seen ladies driving up in carriages and hansoms with pale, anxious fac showing the awful strain upon their nerves and terror at the thought that a blow may be awaiting them. As the cables have shown the among offi~ cers has been terrible—heavier in proportion than the loss among the rank and file. Even more pitiable to be seen are the grief-stricken men of all trades, in working garb, spehding their méal hours outside the War Office seeking for news of their gallant sons, while red-eyed women with babes in their arms are requiring about their husbands. Severe as is the strain upon the War'Office attendants, to their credit be it said, nothing could be more gentle than their treatment of those anxious in- quirers. To comfort those poor people is no easy task, but they do their best trying to reassure them in cases of the wounded or where there may be some doubt as td the fate of their dear ones. DR B e R a2 ) L R e o B e e o S o B o O O o s o e ] to and from South Africa, and it is GERMANY CANNOT AFFORD TO JOIN IN INTERFERENCE But Public Sentiment of the Fatherland Is Against Great Britain. BERLIN, Oct. 28.—The war news ar- rives here in a contradictory shape and is often unintelligible. The comment of most of the papers, irrespective of party, is anti-British and often couched in a satirical and taunting tone. The belief is general that Great Britain thus far has got the worst of the fight, but that the news Is suppressed by the cable censcr- ship, the result of which, it is argued, demonstrates that it is necessary that Germany should construct and operate cables, for in the present state of things, with Great Britain owning all the cables, Germany in the event of war will be en- tirely in the power of Great Rrilain as regards news. Hence many papers advo- cate the laying of a number of German cables. There have been many somplaints this week of the non-delivery of cables charged that the British been suppressing them. From the enormous percentaga of loss of British officers in South Africa the pa. pers here argue that the Boers have not lost their marksmanship during the long term of peace, and th edge the superior brave: The Tageblatt says a brilliant testimonial of ‘he heroism of the officers. No matter how the war and its cause may be garded, we do nét scruple to say this. The newspaper str: over and over again British success is r treat. This is conspicuousiy displayed in the headlines. The only importaut da siding with Great Britain is the Cologne Gazette, though the Bremen Weser Zei- tung does so half-heartedly. It has been learned from a reliable source that the anti-British crusade is greatly against the wishes of the Em- peror and the Government as a whole, A high official of the Foreign Office said to the correspondent: “This violent anti- British campalign in a part of the press, notably the pan-German organs, even go- ing to the length of threatening a counter demonstration In case the Emperor goes officials have e losses furnish togists have proved ha: every reported a defeal or a re- Ally