15 APRIL 1865, Page 2

Sir Charles Wood yesterday week denied positively most of the

" newspaper statements " about the Bootan war. He said we had not lost a third of our force, but only five men ; that the 43rd Native Infantry were not driven out of Dewangiri, but re- treated for want of water ; and that the two Armstrongs were " left behind," not lost in consequence of an attack. Every one of these assertions is either an invention or a quibble. It is per- fectly well known in India that the force had been reduced one- third by disease, though not by battle ; Dewangiri was abandoned because, as an officer •on the spot writes, the enemy had cut off the supply of water ; and the Armstrong guns were abandoned after having been carried a mile, because the sepoys bolted out of fear of the Booteas. This writer, moreover, affirms that the 200 men of the 43rd Native Infantry placed as a guard over the sick and wounded deserted them. Why will Sir Charles Wood never acknowledge anything ?