The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 9, 1900, Page 1

Call VOLUME LXXXVII-NO. 1. PRICE FIVE CENTS. ~ ADVANCE BEYOND THE CAPTURED HIL.L British Troops Are Preparing for the Supreme Struggle to Reach Lady- smith—Beleaguered Garrison Re-| mains Hopeful of Speedy However, the EnngSh People Have Refused to Accept News of Al-| leged Victories by Their Fight- ing Corps Until Verification Is; Received--Gen. Gatacre’s Troops|: Attacked by Boers, Who Are|t Reported to Have Been Repulsed. LONDO proximate Brit day are: Is Officers—Two killed and fifteen wounded; Feb. 8 —General Buller has cabled to the War Office that the ap- h casualties in the fighting at Potgieters Drift up to noon Tues- non- men, 216 killed and wounded. The officers kiiled were Major Johnson-Smyth and Lieutenant Shafto, both The oificers wounded include Colonel Fitzgerald of the Durham Light Infantry, Coionei A. J. Mentgomery of the Royal Artillery and Lieutenant Sir T. A. A, Cunningham: of the Rifte Brigade. [ of the Durham Light Infantry. NI YON Fe 9 as Bt eaves ( o1 positions north *h he won on led against e British have been he 1 se- no atte mpt to he Boers deed It is learned that a priv e to a well-known Bc Wednesslay sition smith’s rel of course the ptimistic message must be 0 account, it seems cer- for the ince the war began. e crowd was at the War the day. Bul- ualties, num- , was received are prepared. No intelligence as to the des- tination of Lords Roberts and Kitcher don. has yet reached Lon- in 3 nce. The people have made up their minds that heavy losses are inevitable and| 29020808060 ¢ LONDON, Feb. 8. —@ ° cabie dispatch received in this city from Spear- mans Camp under to- day’s date says: ““Buller ho!ds his posi- o tion. Relief is certain.” $0® 02000600@ » 0% 04050 50 %06 0604060506 ©904060608 09 0609000 04P | dead in the trenches at Vaal Krantz is seized wupon by some of the London papers as a justification for the em- ployment of Indian native troops in South Africa. There that a couple of bat- wonderful hill ose e Goorkhas, would be 1 developed yesterday quite a new and powerful inter- est in the progress of the war, whetted by the news, which was mean that a general British forces had Thus there was in the clubs of the mov e commenced a attendance r than has been seen ks. Crowds stood around this 1 for w the telegraph boards. It is a striking fact how cau- tious the average club man has become as to accepting news from the front. A few weeks ago everything was taken for grant- Nc members go to the graph boards and thence to the war map, and make up their nds only after much inspec vy the fear of Boer tactics For instance, this universal. morning I heard much doubt ex- pressed as to General Macdon- | ald’s safety at Koodoosherg | Drift, it being argued that as he had got there so easily, the pos- sibility was, as on previous oc- casions, that the Boers had tentionally allowed him to reach there with the object of hemming | him in the more easily. The opinion heard is that the less news we hear at present the better it is. The immediate re- turn to the news detail is reck- oned by a eapable authority to have the effect of making officers on service nervous. The idea is presented thus: The generals | don’t like fighting under the mi- From other fields of war the/ only important news comes from croscope. There is no doubt that public sentiment is very in-| commissioned officers and| | War Office. The sending for- ward of troops continues. WHAT THE WAR COSTS BRITAIN LONDON, Feb. 9, 4 a. m.—All the mes- sages from the observers with General ler throw in a phrase or two about strength of the Boer positions™” and difficulties of General Buller's work,” they do not carry events beyond D e e e R e At e OB SR S S S S e ol i S oo o e ol o g the but i Tuesday evemng. Their last slender narratives leave the British advance on Vaal Krantz, in the center of a semicircle, where the troops exposed to the Boer artillery on both les and in the center. The fighting con- | ed until 9 Tuesday evening, and al- t without doubt continued Wednes- e Boers certainly would not s wedge into their lines unmo- It is also inferred that General - must either continue his advance aviest fighting appears to have Tu ;. General Buller's 233 s are mentioned as having oc- fore noon Tuesday. Large lists equently expected for the rest of € ¥ The ualties already reported | bring the total British losses during the | ar to 10,244 killed, wounded and cap- | { isposition here is rather to mini- | mportance of the fighting in nd to suggest that this is only an anyway, placing hope upon ex- Ve engagements Northern nd upon the invasion of the e State by Lord Roberts. At all events like these new s sharp anxiety for fur- | with a thousand Boers at ha K . This was on Mond The P b taking the offensive : neral French near Rensburg, s against General Gatacre in the | erg hills, | war has strained the resources | tem E oubled by the po: mig! show nav weaken the first line e country has placed such com- This apprehension has sud- 1 expression. During the la two or three days in half of the ne papers of England the Government's at. , Wi tention has been speclally directed to {ne muzzle-loading guns. Even public mesq have : been pained to learn that sixtecn battieships and eight armored cruisers de- pend upon muzzle-loaders. This means that smaller but faster ships with modern guns would be able to stay 1000 or 2000 yards out of range and to disable in lois- urely fashion about one-third of the ves. gels which now appear in the naval list as “first-clas: The Admiralty is understood to be pre- | paring to remedy this defect and to pro. pose also considerable additions that w preserve the present ratio of Great Drit- ain's naval strength to that of France | and Germany. The suppiementary army statement {o March 31 was laid before the House of Commons yesterday, but was not made public. It is reported that the call is for £20.- 000,000, which would make the cost of the war up to that date £30,000,000. The main.. tenance of 200,000 men at the front, it is estimated, costs between £8,000,000 and £10,000,000 per month, | GATACRE’S TROOPS | REPULSE BOERS [Special Cable to the New’York Herald, . Tight. 1900, by New York Hermid Gonl- | ments, Relief. e e e e * ® * L 4 . L 4 - ® - ef Birds River and poured a hot rifle fire into us at 1000 yards' range. They were caught between two fires, the Royal Scots and Cape mounted rifles, and our riflemen in the trenches to the left, and were forced to retreat. At about 11 o'clock an armored train ar- rived from Sterkstroom. It was at once made a target for the Boer shells and had to retire. The enemy’s guns then retired. In the afternoon General Gatacre ar- rived and was followed by reinforce- whereupon the enemy retreated, having been repulsed everywhere. Our loss was one man killed and four wounded | The Boers used explosive Mauser bullets. 1 saw five picked -up in the trenches. — SECOND DAY OF THE BATTLE LONDON, Feb. 9.—The Daily Telegraph has received the following dispatch, dated Tuesday, February 6, from Spearmans Camp: “This is the second’day of the battle, and fighting has been flercer than it was yesterday. At dawn the Boers began the action by shelling our. bivouac with their long Tom and pompon guns from Doorn Kloof. Their six-inch shells fell near the spot where General Buller and his staff were watching the engagement. One shell burst amid a squadron of the Thirteenth Hussars, but not a soul was touched. “Our guns from Zwarts Kop and on the plain soon silenced the enemy’s artillery, but repeatedly the Boers brought back their guns, popped them into work across the hills, fired a few rounds and then again changed their position. “During the morning our gunners suc- ceeded in blowing up the enemy’s ammu- nition wagon upon Doorn Kloof. General Lyttelton's brigade was shot at from sides and had a warm time upon aal Krantz. “Desperate efforts were made by the Boers to recover the smoking hill. The Durham Light Infantry, the King's Royal Rifles and the Scottish Rifles gallantly charged and cleared the position. General Hildyard's brigade relieved General Lyt- telton’s brigade toward sunset. “Pighting continued until 9 o’clock. Sev- eral prisoners have been taken. They declare that the Boers yesterday lost heavily. The enemy suffered severely to- day. It is reported that among their dead in the trenches armed Kaffirs were found. e BULLER'S TASK | pany. Republication of thi prohibited. Al . rights reserveg pic® olf United States and Great Britain.) LONDON, Feb. 9.—The spectal corre- | spondent of the Dally Mail sends this dis. patch: : | BIRDS RIVER, Cape Colony, Wednes- | aay, Feb. 7.—The Boers opened fire on th MOST__DIFFICU LT LONDON, Feb. 9.—The Times, in an edi- torial dealing with General Buller's task, says: “The problem before him is unquestion- Qoo ieiedededeieied [ R R S o SaCR WOUNDED BOER AND BRITON SHARE EOOD R R e e with safety. We await the issue of the operation with great anxiety.” Elsewhere the Times takes heart from the fact that General Buller is “playing his part in the general scheme and is being. co-ordinated by Lord Roberts.” It says on this point: ““The British public is still kept in igno- rance of the whereabouts of some 25,000 troops, and great developments may be expected.. ‘It is difficult to belteve that the Boers are cqually ignorant of the dispo- sition of the British forces. The great game of war will, however, shortly be be- gun, and we may confidently hope that the period of reverses is drawing to an end.” SERIPTE GOOD WORK ON THE HOSPITAL SHIP LONDON, Feb. .—Lady Rando’ph Churchill has cabled to the Maine hospitil ship committee as follows: “DURBAN, Feb. 8.—One hundred ani forty patlents are now on board the Maine, mostly Dublin Fusiliers, Hussars, West Yorks and Lancers. There are si hopeful. This is reflected in the city, where on the Stock Ex- change, that great and generally General Gatacre, who has report- ed that the Boers made an attack upon the British position near Sterkstroom, apparently to| true barometer, Americans and prove that they were not nap-|mniines were strong. ping. | The same spirit of quiet and The report that armed Kaffirs| undemonstrative confidence and have been found among the Boer | the same activity prevails at the camp this morning from a high ridge 46 | ably most difficult. We cannot be sur | vards away. Finding the range on the | prised or disheartened should he be unable | third shot, their 1412-pounder Creusot guns | to solve it with success. His task is not | pitched nine shells within a radius of | merely to force a way through the Boer | thirty yards around the Cape mounted | lines to Ladysmith. That operation would rifies’ guns, which were unable to reply | be formidable enough. But it would be | owing to the range being beyond their | ecasy compared with the feat he must per- | capacity. form ‘if large strategical results are to | Later the enemy's rifiemen lined tho|follow his efforts. He must inflict a | ridges four miles off, from which they | crushing defeat upon the Boer army. Un- | were successfully driven by the firing of | less he can drive into the Drakensberg or [the Cape mounted rifles artillery. . . | otherwise destroy that army, the relief A number of the enemy ot into the bed | of Ladysmith can hardly be accomplished ty-nine wounded, mostly from Colenso and Spion Kop, including stretcher-bearers and members of the army medical corps. There are many cases of rheumatism and fever. Expecting additionals to-day. Owing to the excellence of the ship the authorities are giving us many cot cases. The staff is hard at work and everything is satisfactory.” DURBAN, Natal, Feb. 8.—The American hospital ship Maine, filled with wounded soldiers, started to-day from here for Cape Town. LYDDITE HURLED AGAINST THE BOERS RENSBERG, Feb. 8—The Boers’ posi- tion was vigorously .shelled with lyddite for an hour this morning eastward from Slingerfontein and westward from the top at. Koleskop, a. fifteen-pounder. shrapnel #un paving soecial attention to the sites AND DRINK ON THE BATTLEFIELD- Pe b e bed e eoed . B 0 MM T T SO SO S S Y & ® oo . L 4 L e e 4 @ P * + of the Boer guns, which have been un- usually active lately. The Boers held a position half way on the direct road between Rensberg and Colesberg. They shelled Porters Hill yes- terday ineffectually. American Hay All Right LONDON, Feb, 8—Answering a ques- tion in the House of Commons regarding the purchase of hay in the United States, it was said in behalf of the Government by Secretary Broderick that the Ministry had no knowledge that bad hay was be- ing consigned from the United States to South Africa. It was added that home grown hay was much costlier and was not so durable in the present campaign os American hay. ——— In Aid of Boers. SACRAMENTO, Feb. $.—A meeting was held here to-night under the auspices of | baggage has gone towa the Robert Emmet Club for the purpose | Boers are weil aware of expressing sympathy with the Boers and raising funds to aid them. Addresses were made by State Senator Gillis Doty of this county, Kev. Father Quinn, R. M. Clarken, City Trustee Devin and others, L e e e SPEARMANS FARM FIRST BRITISH HEADQUARTERS BEYOND THE TUGELA AR I A R R R R s | operation of plercing the 4| ? | side can concentrate on one p & | chooses his point of at | cle, while the assailant's fire © | tront is divergent rather than convergent. | .®+&W@+®+WQWQ+QW+&r. ] | sieier e i esese>e@® D e A e e o P e e e v +dsoese® A e SRR ana ] GREAT BRITAIN'S BIG ARMY IN SOUTH AFRICA LONDON, Feb. 8.—In the House of Commons to-day George Wyndham, Parlia- mentary Secretary of the War Office, answering a question, said that 2285 officers and men of the British army were missing, but it was uncertain how many of them were at Pretoria. As to their protec- tion in case the British be- sieged Pretoria Mr. Wyndham said the Government left that to the discretion of Lord lob- erts. Answering another ques- tion, Mr. Wyndham said that in addition to the 180,000 troops in South Africa recent- 1y mentioned in his speech the Government had decided to send seventeen more battal- ions of militia and 3000 yeo- manry, making a total for the militia of over 20,000 men and for the yeomanry S000. The total in South Africa, he added, would then be 194,- 000 effectives, exclusive of sick and wounded. R I e e R R + Gt 4+ 447440444240 000400 any reason or explanation for the delay in the delivery of the award, nor was the vernment aware “of the causes £ ¢ elay, which it considers regrettable.” he Government, however, could not interfere with the view of hastening the proceed- ings of the tribunal. MUST CRUSH THE REPUBLICAN FORCE LONDON, Feb. 9.—Spencer Wilson, discussing General Buller's latest move- ment, in the Morning Post to-day, says: The adopting of this line of action is that it offers the shortest road to Ladysmith. The disadvantage is that with modern weapons the emy’s front is one ter beginning each t of the enme- my’s line the fire of the long portion of its own front of all the riflemen al a fromt of a mile and a half and a front of three or four miles of the utmost di%culty ¢ all the guns along As the assailant enemy’s line, troops the converging fire nvex f, however, the assailant can find cover for his leading party he has a converging fire against the two ends of the defending semi- therefore, hope to drive gap he has circle, and he may, his opponent back,' t made and then, as he pushed it and holds the enemy alon front, to roll up either wing of the defense. This task, hard in any case, is rendered Rarder when a river must be crossed, for & river between two armies prevents the assall- ant from engaging the defender along his whole front except with artillery, and there- fore the defender. as soon as he recognizes the rry troops from both er also limits the atlant can bring for they must all cross a bridge or to bear, bridzes by defile General Buller has made a good order to be able to advance he will p have to drive the Boers from Doorn Kloof, art. In bably o separate the two Boer wings, and then, while holding one of them, to attack and crush tne otber. That cannot be an easy matter, for they can it not from the northwest and east, on Vaal | Krantz We hear from Ladvsmith that Boer heavy ard passage. The that defeat means for them *ne raising of the siege of Ladysmith and their retreat from the district. It is to be hoved that Gemeral Buller will press the attack and will not tire even if the engagement lasts several days. The case resembles that of Genera: Grant’s battle at Fort Doneison, when and contributions to the amount of $16; | he first realized that it was a question which were made. Garrison Prepared. LONDON, Feb. 9.—A dispatch to the Morning Post from Ladysmith, dated Tuesday, February 6, says: “Little can be seen of General Buller's action owing to the haze. It appears tLat the Boers have withdrawn their big =uns from the hills southward of here. A large force of Boers still remain and the garri- son is prepared for a night attack.” . @s to Delagoa Bay. - LONDON, Feb. 8.—In reply to a serfes of questions on the subject of the Delagna Bay railroad, Mr. Broderick, Parliament- ary Secretary for the Forelgn Office, sald the Government had not been vouchsafed 1 of the two armies, both tired of fighting, could first renew the attack, but General Buller can- not relieve Ladysmith except by defeating and driving away the Boer army thus raising the siege. He cannot cut his way through the Boers and march on to Ladysmith, leaving the Boers undestroyed on his flank. That would only lead to the loss of his army Short of breaking the Boer resistance he might, however, by a sufficiently Vigorous and prolonged attack compel them to call up re- enforcements from the investing lines and thus make h possible for Sir George White to break through these lines and march to Skits Drift. That movement would be costly. It would be- gin with the sacrifice of the heavy guns and With heavy loss in the sortie. Thers would then be & great pressure on the rear guard, heavy loss in the ten miles and further loss in the attack on the rear of the Boers at Brak fontetn or Doorn Kicof, but it would be an honorable way out of what has been called the Ladysmith entanglement,