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Show 4-i "f 4-f4 4-4-f 'f'f44-fi444-f4 -f -f-f Chicago, Nov. 1. A special dispatch to the Chicago Chronicle from London says; It is reported in London this (Wednesday) morning that one of the British troopships which sailed for the Cape last week has been lost at sea. No details of the reported disaster are given, and the rumor has not been traced to any authoritative source. London, Nov. 1. In connection with the rumor of the loss of a British troopship, the name of Peninsular and Oriental steamer Nubia has been mentioned, but the company has no knowledge of any dis- V aster and they say they do not know whence the rumor originated. -- The Nubia sailed from Southampton on Oct. 21, for the Cape of Good Hope, via St. Vincent, Cape Devern Islands, which place she left Mon- day. The rumors seems to have originated in Berlin on Monday, but 4- nothing is known of the matter here. -f I . London, Nov. 1. The British war office of-fice today made public a dispatch received re-ceived from General White, describing the operations of Monday. It was as follows: "Ladysmith, Oct.' 31, 7:50 p. m. Took out from Ladysmith a brigade of mounted troops, two brigade divisions of the Royal artillery, the Natal field battery and two brigades of infantry, to reconnoitre in force the. enemy's I main position to the north and if the j opportunity should offer to capture the hill behind Farquhar's farm, which had on the previous day been held in strength by the enemy. "In connection with this advance a column, consisting of the Tenth mountain moun-tain artillery, four half companies of the Gloucesters and six companies of the Royal Irish Fusileers, the whole under Lieutenant Colonel Carlton and Major Adye, deputy assitant adjutant general, was dispatched at 11 p. m. of the 29th to march by night up Bells-pruit Bells-pruit and seize Nicholasons Neck or some position near Nicholson's Neck, thus turning the enemy's right flank. Loss to the Enemy. "The main advance was uccessfully carried out, the objective attack being found evacuated, an artillery duel between be-tween our field batteries and the enemy's guns of the position and Maxims Max-ims is understood to have caused heavy forced the enemy to fully disclose his position and after a strong counter attack at-tack on our right the infantry brigade and cavalry had been repulsed the troops were slowly withdrawn to camp, pickets being left on observation. Late in the engagement the naval contingent contin-gent under Captain Lambler of H. M. S. Powerful, came into action and silenced, si-lenced, with their extremely accurate fire, the enemy's guns of position. "The circumstances which attended the movement of Lieutenant Colonel Carlton's column are not yet fully known, but from reports received the column appears to have carried out the night march unmolested until within two miles of Nicholson's Neck. At this point two boulders rolled from the hill and a few rifle shots stampeded the infantry in-fantry ammunition mules. Thi stampede spread to the battery mules, . which broke loose from their leaders and ran away with practically the whole of the gun equipment and the greater portion of the small arm ammunition. The reserve re-serve was similarly lost. ' Still the British Fought. "The infantry battalions, ' however, fixed bayonets and accompanied by the personnel of the artillery, seized a hill on the left of the road two miles from the Neck with but little opposition. There they remained unmolested until dawn, the time being occupied in organizing or-ganizing the defense, of the hill and constructing con-structing stone, sangars and walls as cover from fire. . ','At dawn a skirmishing attack on our position was commenced by the enemy, but made no way until 9:30 a. m. when reinforcements enabled them to rush to the attack with great energy. Their fire became very searching and two companies of the Gloucesters in an advance ad-vance position were ordered, to fall back. The enemy then pressed to short range the losses on our side becoming very numerous. Ammunition All Gone. "At 3 p. m. our - ammunition was practically exhausted, the position was captured and the survivors of the column col-umn fell into the enemy's hands. The enemy treated our wounded with humanity, hu-manity, General Joubri at once dispatching dis-patching a letter to me offering a safe conduct of doctors and ambuiances to remove the wounded. A medical officer and parties to render first aid to the wounded were dispatched to the scene of action from Ladysmith last night and the ambulance at Jiwn this morning. morn-ing. - . "The want of success of the column was due to the misfortune of the mules stampeding and the consequent loss, of the guns and small arm ammunition reserve. re-serve. The official list of casualties and prisoners will be reported shortly. The latter are understood to have been sent by rail to Pretoria. The security of Ladysmith is in no way affected." , THEY MADE AN HEROIC STAND. Sting of Defeat Lessened By : the Bravery of the Troops. London, Nov.- 1. The gloom caused j by the. British disaster at .Ladvsmith was, in a measure,' relieved by today's ' story giving an account of the heroi-j stand made by the decimated battalions until their last cartridges were gone. The British nerve wa3 momentarily shaken bv General White's use of the word "capitulate" in his first telegram, but now that it is known that the Gloucesters and fusileers fought againat overwhelming odds and upheld the best traditions of the British army, j tVift torcinn Viae hnan ir.Hij-1 there is no longer any ground to dread that the loss of life was accompanied by dishonor. The details today show the catastrophe catas-trophe in a brighter aspect. The full battalions were not engaged and, therefore, there-fore, the list of prisoners is materially reduced, while the disaster now aj.?ears to have been not so much the consequence conse-quence of defects in the plan of action as to a misfortune whereby the column was deprived of its ammunition. j Still it seems incomprehensible why the plight of the luckless column was not known at headquarters as the scene of the surrender was only about three miles northwest of Ladysmith. and Lieutenant Colonel Carlton must have expected relief to reach him. or. instead of attempting to x-cupy a defensive position po-sition he would have retraced his steps to Ladysmith when he suffered the loss of his ammunition. Apart from General White's statement state-ment that the losses are verv numerous, numer-ous, there is nothing to indicate the exieni oi inem except a vague report that the soldier who brought the news to Ladysmith said the British dead and wounded were lying in heaps, and that hundreds needed doctors. This, however, how-ever, is hardly borne out by the long list of captured officers. The concluding sentence of General White's dispatch relative to the safety of Ladysmith was received here with a certain reserve, in view of the fact that similar official assurances were given recently at Dundee and Glencoe, and there is. intense anxiety for news of the renewed attack, which is not mentioned men-tioned in the dispatches. The calamity has- served to alarm the British and the soldiers' friends. TJie papers comment com-ment on the splendid reserve of patriotism pa-triotism existing in the far away colonies col-onies and the deep-seated feeling of friendship and sympathy of the great kindred nation across the Atlantic. The Standard sums up the feeling of the nation, saying: "From the United States and our colonies alone we hear the voice of friendly sorrow and encouragement. en-couragement. But that suffices. All others are welcome- to congratulate themselves over the misfortunes of Great Britain." - The war office has made a welcome concession to the public desire for news. Hereafter every postoffiee will be open Sunday morning, and will post copies of all telegrams received by the war office up to 1 a. m. Sunday. It was learned today by a representative representa-tive of the Associated Press that the British government has been obliged to refuse permission for the United States to send four officers to watch the Transvaal war, owing to the precedent which only permits one representative from each recognized power. Captain Stephen L'Hommedieu Slocum. the United States military attache at Lisbon, Lis-bon, has been selected. He was in London today, buying an outfit, and sails Saturday. Colonel- Samuel S. Sumner, the United States military attache at-tache here, remains in Lmdon. It was reported at Aldershot today that another complete armv division Will forthwith he fnpmorl fn Dorvln. in South Africa. The division consists of 10.000 men and fifty-four guns. This is probably a preliminary step toward a calling out of a second army corps. BREAK IN THE CABLE. Prevents Receipt In London of Further Fur-ther News From the Front. London. Nov. 2. The break-down of the Delagoa bay cable route, combined with the monopolization of the available avail-able telegraph lines by the government and British s:aff officers, is responsible for the fact that nothing further has arrived from South Africa. The government gov-ernment has received dispatches rectifying recti-fying the casualty lists. These will be published today. Up to midnight nothing had been received re-ceived concerning Monday's casualties. The war office officials are working under un-der great strain.' Captain Perriott, staff captain to the military secretary, has just died, his end being hastened by anxiety and overwork. An unconfirmed uncon-firmed statement is published that ' General Sir Redvers Huller has left Cape Town for Ladysmith. A belated dispatch from Ladvsmith, describing Monday's fight, says: - couple of squadrons of hussars hurl a narrow escape from disaster early in the day. They found themselves suddenly sud-denly Confronted within easy rancre by an overwhelming force of Boers, who seemed to spring from the bowels of the earth. The hussars were splendidly handled and were extricated with only one man wounded." The queen is credited with expressing express-ing sincere pity for Sir George Stewart White, and the officials are in no wise inclined to judge him harshly. So far as the public is concerned, however, while gratification is felt at the manner in which the; isolated battalions surrendered, surren-dered, there is still severe criticism f General White and Lieutenant Colomi Carleton for allowing the column t I get out of touch, for the absence of proper scouting and for not retiring when the ammunition was lost. In fa- i vor of Lieutenant Colonel Carleton th? explanation is hazarded that he bel lieved it was imperative to the sucress fjf of General White's operations that he should hold the position at Nicholson's Nek. I The Morning Post comments severely upon the British contempt for the eno-my. eno-my. as shown by the belief that the large Botr force at Acton Homes could be held in check by Carleton's small column. It points out that even if th; British there had been supplied with ammunition they could not have held out only a few hours longer, inasmuch as they were in the most complet:-sense complet:-sense detached, and because nobody apparently at Ladysmith had any idea of their distress or took any measures to rescue them. "The column was sacrificed.", says the Morning Post, "because it was sent into action gagged and blindfolded. It had neither scout nor patrol. Twelve hundred men were thrown away for lack of cavalry, which would not have been, missed from, another part of th , field." . " V . The Standard, which comments in similar terms upon "the fact that General Gen-eral White made no effort to extricate the column from the impossible situation situa-tion into which he had thrust it." draws a sad picture of the men "hoping for relief and then realizing with bitterness bit-terness of heart that someone had j blundered: that they had been forgotten forgot-ten by their general and his staff, and that nothing was left but surrender and imprisonment at Pretoria until the end of the war." The Daily Chronicle says: "It is evident evi-dent that somebody blundered, but more details are required before the blame can be apportioned." The Times says: A careful calculation calcula-tion of the British losses in all the engagements en-gagements since the outbreak of hostilities, hos-tilities, excluding the casualties among tiit? noii-i-oiiiinisi-ioneo omcers. ana men in Monday's disaster at Ladysmith. which are thus far unknown here, gives a total of 916; to which probably 1.200 will be added when the details regarding regard-ing the Ladysmith reverse are received. , This total is made up as follows: Offi- , ! cers 133, eighteen being killed, sixty-one wounded and fifty-three captured; men 7S3, being 137 killed, 492 wounded and 151 captured. The Times further says: The dangers of Sir George White's plans are patent even to civilians, but it is not impossible that the Cape boys in charge of the mountain battery have been tampered wjth by the Boers. Otherwise such a large and comprehensive stampede is a very extraordinary occurrence from such a slight cause. General White's movements, so far as it can be understood from present Information is open to criticism, especially espec-ially in the complete absence of communication com-munication with the main body. The morning papers comment with the greatest satisfaction upon Canada's j suggestion regarding the sending of a t I second contingent to South Africa. I MORE LIVES AND MONEY. Rosebery Says the War Must Be Won at Any Cost. , js Edinburgh, Nov. 1. -Lord Rosebery, I toasting the "Army and Navy" at a banquet given this evening by the lord provost of Edinburgh to the officers cf I the Gordon Highlanders and the Scots Greys, referred to the reverse in Natal, j and said: I "It is much to be regretted, but in a g considerable campaign we must look out fcr such incidents. It is not in the nature' of Britons to take muc notice j of them. We have had a good many of the same kind, and have generally got out right in the end. But whatever . j happens, we must see this thing through, even if it should cost, still more battalions and still more millions. J "Some day there will be an inquisi- j tion as to the preparations made for this war. but the time for that is not i now. Our duty now is to support those r" who have the direction of affairs." f |
