CABLE NEWS.

Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 140, 11 December 1899, Page 5

CABLE NEWS.

TdY ELECTBIC TELKaUAI'H.— COPYRIGHT.] ■ ♦ LAOYSMITH'S GARRISON. OFFICIAL REPORT OF LOSSES. DANGERS TO THE" HEALTH OF THE INHABITANTS. iritESS AIBOOIATION.] DURBAN, 9th December. An official report has been received fiom Lieut. -General Sir George" White at Ladysinith with regard to tho losses suffered by the garrison under the enemy's bombardment. From Ist November — when the investment seriously began — until the date of the ropoit being made five officers and twenty-six men had been killed, and fifteen officers and one hundred and thirty men wounded. MELBOURNE, 10th December. With regard to the reported outbreak of sickness amongst the troops at Ladysmjth, the special correspondent of the Natal Times wrote recently that it was sale to prophesy that the garrison would bo subjected to tha fever scourge — " a mighty sight more dire and troublesome than Boer shells " " The dead bodies of horses and quantities of Vegetable matter have," ho says, " been left, to decompose in the open air. Ladysmith is dirty under ordinary circumstances, but with tho water supply cut off, and from fifteen to twenty thousand men cooped up in the place, the result nuy be appalling." ' SORTIES FROM THE TOWN. A DANGEROUS GUN PUT OUT OF THE WAY. (Received December 11, 8.43 a.m.) DURBAN, 10th December. Noavs is to hand of two successful sorties made by sections of the British forces now beleaguered in Ladysmith. On Thursday last, an expedition under Major-General Sir Archibald Hunter, Chief of Staff to General Sir Redvers Buller, made a surprise dash upon the Boer position at Lombard's Kop, a hill some miles to the north-east of the town, from which a worrying fire has been directed upon the garrison for some time past. General Hunter's force consisted of five hundred Nital volunteers and about one hundred of the Imperial Light Horse — the cavalry oarps raised by Messrs. Sampson and Davis aanong the Johannesburg refugees and the Natal settlers. The enemy vere completely taken off guard. A six-inch gun and a howitzer which they had mounted was destroyed, and a. Maxim gtn was captured. [Six-inch guns, such as the one destroyed at Lombard's Kon. are the largest taken into the field. The reason is obvious when one remembers that the projectile they throw weighs 1001b. If a heavier shell were employed, 100 many men would ba exposed to tae fire of the enemy in the operation of loading. The weight of the gun is 6£ tons, and it fires seven rounds per minute. To have put so formidable a^weapon out of action is indeed an achievement.] The loss on the British side was one man killed and another wounded. On the samo night the Nineteenth Hussars made a raid on the Boer camp at Pep worth Hill, near Bester's, five mile 3 north-west of Ladysmith, and burned the laagers (defended enclosures), after cutting the barbed wire protecting them. (Received December 11, 9.8 a.m.) DURBAN, 10th December. Train loads of gaily-dressed ladies from Pretoria are paying weekly visits to the liilLs around Ladysmith, to watch tho bombardment of the town.