The latest items of news from Natal all indicate that
we are on the eve of great events, but very properly the newspaper correspondents, though allowed to tell us about the activity of the Boers, give no indications as to what are General Buller's
intentions,—whether, that is, he is going to make a turning movement to the west or to the east ; whether a turning movement, if made, will be of wide or narrow compass ; or whether he will again make a frontal attack, having, of course, first heavily bombarded the enemy's positions. The only positive pieces of news about the position in Natal arc the following. The Tugela is falling, and Buller has now nearly thirty thousand men and some sixty-sin guns of various kinds. Our scouting and reconnoitring has evi- dently improved, as we constantly hear of small bodies of our men, both regulars and irregulars, surprising parties of the enemy and inflicting losses on them which, if slight, are worrying, while themselves having no losses. Again, the correspondents give the traction engines which have arrived a very good character, and Mr. Winston Churchill describes them as drawing trains over the veldt with great rapidity, "manoeuvring and climbing steep gradients with apparent ease," and declares that they are " capable of drawing heavy supplies anywhere." As regards the enemy's entrench- ments, we are told that they are being extended daily, and now cover nearly twenty miles. It is also reported that on Thurs- day morning our big guns vigorously shelled the Boer posi- tions, and " smashed" a portion of them. Whether any real damage was done it is, of course, impossible to say. With' such knowledge we must be content till next week. Mean- time, Ladysmith, though bombarded daily, is evidently able to hold out for some time yet.
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