THE TRANSVAAL WAR.
Manawatu Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7299, 23 September 1901, Page 2
About this newspaper
THE TRANSVAAL WAR.
(Press Association.—Copyright.)
■London, September 20.
An official despatch states that a superior force of the enemy appeared at Vlakfontein, fifteen miles south of the waterworks. They surrounded and captured two guns of the A Battery and a company of mounted men who were acting as escorts. The only details Lord Kitchener has received of the affair are that a lieutenant was killed and that British columns are in pursuit of the enemy. Seventeen Lancers were killed at Tarkestad, including Lieutenant Philip Leslie Eussell, of Carngham Victoria.
The Standard and Daily Telegraph, commenting on the .recent reverses, questions ths wisdom of sending guns about the country with small detachments of troops, thus running the risk of the escorts being outnumbered.
The papers admit that unfavorable odds are occasionally inevitable from a military standpoint, owing to the character of the country, and the scattered nature of the pDsitions and the forces resulting from the guerilla tactics pursued by the enemy. The Times and Morning Post warn the Government that the nation long since realised the necessity of a fight to a finish, and. that the nation is entitled to hav6 responsibility brought home to those blameable,a fact which is only realised intermittently. Twenty of Lieut.• Colonel Plumer'a New Zealanders captured 20 of Kruitzinger's commando at Roux« viile, in tho southeast of Orange River Colony.
Speaking at a political meeting in connection with the North-Eaab Larnarkshire by-elsction, Sir William CampbeU-Bannerman declared that the annexation of the Boer Republics mu3fc be upheld. Twenty-eight Boers have surrendered at Krugersdorp, west of. Johannesburg, and nine others and thres^ armed natives who wereshowing fight were captured.
