Show DEMANDS FREE INQUIRY Gen Colville Does Not Intend to Be Made Scapegoat MAKES PUBLIC STATEMENT j Declines to Accept the Blame for the Yeomanry Disaster at LIndley Last May He Avers That It Could iNofc Have Happened Had He Been Informed In-formed of Lord Robertss Intention Ho Lays Out the Fact and Blames Others Campaign Agains I New War Secretary aiy J London Dce 2S MajGcn Sir Henry Colvillc whose resignation has been demanded by l the War oflicc but who refused to resign and came to England from Gibraltar arrived at Plymouth today to demand a trial by courtmar tial to establish the responsibility for I the Yeomanry disaster ut LIndley last May has made 0 counter strike at tho War office In 0 3000word statement which he has given to the press He I says ha has come home demand a I free Inquiry and does not intend to b3 made a scapegoat for the sake of I the staff He avers that the Lindley disaster could never have happened had he been informed of Lord Roberts Rob-erts Intention The primary cause of the surrender he says was the Insufficient I Insuf-ficient Information given by the headquarters head-quarters staff to Col Spraggc and himself and he declines to accept the blame He lays out the facts and blames others Gen Colvlllo and hla Influential friends in and out of the army are thus beginning n campaign against the new Secretary of State for War William SL John Broderlck Lord Roberts and Gen Kitchener I is cx peeled to be fought out with some fcro city in Parliament S SORTIE FROM GREYL1XGSTAD Gen Kitchener telegraphing from I Pretoria under date of Friday December Decem-ber 2Sth sends a summary of the number I num-ber of attacks made by the Boers at various points The only Important Incident In-cident was an attack upon a baggage column near Greyllngstad A company with a pompom made a sortie from Greyllngstad and drove off the Boers Capts Radclyffe and Harvest were I wounded Ight men were killed twen tyseven were wounded and twenty were reported missing In view of the prolongation of lie war the London Daily Telegraph has again dispatched Mr Bennett Burlelgh its famous war correspondent to South Africa s PROVISIONS AT FAMINE PRICES PJI Kimberley Is I almost Isolated by Boer raiders No malls have reached there from December 10th to December 25th Provisions are at famine prices Tho military took charge of all the foodstuffs food-stuffs December 22nd The Leinster reg rcr iment commanded by MftJ Barry had a sklpnlsh lasting four hours with the Boer at DreLfonlein December 27th suffering slight losses The Bo rs at Geluuk captured a convoy of twenty five wagons on Christmas eve REGAINING LOST GROUND I DispatchesIrom South Africa ncH little j lit-tle or nothing to tho Information con L corning the situation though the gon oral trend of events seems to show that the British are regaining tho ground recently lost A special from Nil uwpoolt dated December 2Sth reports re-ports thai Col de Lisle assaulted Hert zog eighteen miles west of DC Aar capturing n number of wagons and releasing re-leasing the prisoners captured at Phil ipstown LieutCol Grenfcll forced back Gen Kritzenger toward Vcnters tadt Both commandoes are in a desperate perate plight and will probably never recross the Orange riverA v river-A Standcrton dispatch dated December Decem-ber JSth says It is estimated that 2000 Bocrfl were engaged In the operations in North Natal hoping to break the British line of communication Thin plan failed and the t Boers were driven off In each ruse vitli more or less loss their casualties in the last day or two numbering fifty while the British casualties cas-ualties were slight ualles slght v VENTERSDORP OCCUPIED According to a Johannesburg dispatch dis-patch of Fridays date Gen French occupied Ventersdorp lint day without opposition This place being a great telegraphic center has been much used by l the Boers for the dissemination of I information The possession of Ven tersdorp Richtenburg and Xeerust gives the British a strong hold upon this part of the country From Carnarvon under yesterdays date comes 1 dispatch saying the Boers occupied Vosberg December 27th In force and were reported to be moving on Carnarvon where martial law has been proclaimed The loyal field cornets cor-nets and farmers have assured the authorities au-thorities that they will remain loyal and will suppress disloyal talk |