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Show ALL HOPE IS DISPELLED. French Unable to Take Any of the Orange River Crossings. London, Jan. 4. There is a complete abssnce of anything new from the seat of war. The report of the Boer attack upon Molteno is not yet confirmed. Apparently Ap-parently General French holds. nothing within five miles of Colesburg junction. His request for reinforcements dispels any present hope that he will be able to seize one of the crossings of the Orange river. It is probable that when Lord Roberts arrives General French will be ordered to quit his present unsupported" position posi-tion and to concentrate his command at De Aar or Orange river. As the Daily Telegraph says: "General French seems to be in the position of a man having a tiger cat in a trap and unable to kill it for. want of a stick." A dispatch from Dover Farm announces an-nounces that Lieutenant Colonel Pilch-er Pilch-er has returned there safely from Doug-las& Doug-las& Since Commandant General Joubert's return to the front the cannonading of Ladysmith by the Boers has been much livelier. Between Dec. IS and Dec. 29, four shells killed one officer and thirteen thir-teen men and wounded thirteen officers and eleven men. The war office acknowledges the inferiority in-feriority of the regular artillery by authorizing au-thorizing the equipment of the new battery bat-tery attached to the London volunteer corps with Vickers and Maxims, some of which the Boers use. and by ordering 100 of these 12-pounders. quick-fires, to be built immediately. The officers and men of the new battery will be supplied from the honorable artillery company. Eight additional militia regiments reg-iments have been called out. Seven of these will serve in Ireland, replacing the regulars sent to South Africa. Hon. Sidney Robert Greville, equerry to the Prince of Wales, has obtained the prince's permission to go to the front. Recently he has been acting as Lord Salisbury's secretary, instead of Sehomberg McDonnell, who has gone to South Africa, Among the announcements announce-ments of those who volunteered yesterday yester-day appear the names of a hundred or more sons of gentlemen. Many of these are Scotch. At Lord Chesham's headquarters a reporter of the Associated Press was informed that the Duke of Marlborough's Marlbor-ough's offer to accompany the Oxfordshire Oxford-shire yeomanry to South Africa has not yet been accepted, in spite of the published statements to the contrary. It is further said it is quite likely he will not go to South Africa, as he already al-ready has a black mark against him ,. ,nn( Vioinjr married, and his successful passing of the medical examination ex-amination is doubtful. The amateur golf champion, John Ball, jr., has been ordered to South Africa with the Iun-bigshire Iun-bigshire yeomanry. The Pall Mall Gazette today announces an-nounces that Winston Churchill, the newspaper correspondent who. was captured cap-tured by the Boers in Natal and taken to Pretoria. 4 whence he subsequently escaped and arrived safely at Delagoa Bay, has been appointed a squadron leader in the South African horse. |