ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 11110, 6 May 1911, Page 4

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

W. Canton.—No work has been done at the mine beyond keeping the machinery in running order. The directors have been obtaining expert reports on the property, and these will be submitted to shareholders at a special meeting to bj held in the course of the next fortnight. Be Correct.—The guns of no particular ship "saved Ladysmith," but the order in which guns were seut up from warships in youth African ports is another matter. The first naval guns were 12-pounders, accompanied by a detachmeut from tho Powerful. These arc tho guns which Sir Hedworth Lambton (then commanding tho Powerful) claimed at the Elgin Commission to have saved Ladysiuith, but competent criticism now regards that statement as an exaggeration. Tho guns from the Powerful reached Ladysmith on (ho clay on which Sir Geo. White was hemmed in. Better naval guns (i.Tin.) were subsequently inrnishetl to Sir l'cdvers Bullor's relief force from such ships as H.M.S. Forto and sister?, and, Inter, 6in. guns on patent field mountings, by Captain Percy Scott of the Terrible. All these guns played an important part, but tho howitzers sent from England and accompanying Bullcr's Xatal Field Force played a more important role than any of the direct fire guns. Without them tho relief of Ladysmith would not have been possible.