THE PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 64, 16 March 1900, Page 4

THE PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN.

The operations oL' our forces in the immediate future are, to a certain degree, diflicnlt to forecast. In the Free State the enemy are in grentest numbers 11 ortli and north-east of Bloenifontein. A determined stand has for : some weeks been spoken of as likely Ito be made in the hills about Winburg. This town is about SO miles by rail and 65 by direct road north-east of Bloemfontein. One hundred and twenty miles to the south of what will for a few days be Lord Roberts' head-

quarters, by the main line of rail, are, at Norval's Pont, a body of Boers estimated at 5000. This army is being now bombarded from the. Cape Colony side of the Orange River by a force tinder General Clements. The direction of the British advance, now that the trunk line has been reached, will be diverted from east to north-

east. A division of the army will probably proceed south with a view to the cutting off of the retreat of the Norval's Pont commandoes, and any small sections of the enemy still in Cape Colony. In Natal nothing has been heard of the* operations of General Buller's army since the statement of a week back that a move was beingmade towards Van Reenan's Pass. The task before a force endeavouring to cross the passes of the rocky Drakensberg- range is a difficult one. Should anything like a determined resistance be offered it is not likely that General

Buller will persevere in the endeavour to penetrate into the Free State by this route. Farther north in Natal, in the vicinity of Dundee and Glencoe, a struggle is apparently impending between the enemy, under Botha, entrenched in the JJiggarsberg Mills, and the division of which Major-General Hunter has been appointed the leader. Apropos of Kruger's oft-repeated statement that the struggle in the Transvaal will startle Europe, there is a. statement of some interest in the somewhat. pro-Boer "Review of. Reviews."' Mr Stead affirms that. President Kruger's plan to make England pay a "'price that will stagger humanity" for victory over the Transvaal is to fill the. trenches with women. Such a step would be a thrilling evidence of their unflinching determination to maintain their liberty, no mat' tor what the cost of blood, and it would have a tremendous moral effect not only upon the British soldiers themselves. but upon all the nations' of the world." .Speculation is all that is possible on a. subject about which such conflictingassertions have been made. However, ere many weeks have passed Kruger announcements will be put to the test, and we believe disproved.