THE TRANSVAAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 5

THE TRANSVAAL.

RESULT 01 RECENT OPERATIONS

PRETORIA, May 2.—The result of recent operations in different part;: of the Transvaal, and especially in the north and eastern districts, is inns I satisfactory, and affords the cheeriest reading that we have had for some time past. There have been no big actions nor crushing defeats, fur the enemy still pursues his favourite tactics of retiring •'full of courage," whenever the alternative of fighting is presented; but from all quarters accounts come iv of surrenders and captures. chiefly (lie former, indicating that the Boers are beginning to realise the hopelessness of it all in grim earnest, and as soon as the opportunity presents itself give themselves up. For the last week the total of-captures and surrenders amounts to something1 like a thousand men. These surrenders, perhaps, though they cannot fail to weaken very considerably the enemy's power for mischief, have a more important bearing in that the example set is likely to he infectious, and will almost sure to be followed on a considerable scale, and consequently to hasten in no small degree the end of hostilities.

For months past the number of Boers killed in the various engagements throughout, the country his amounted to an average of nearly a hundred a month; for the past two months the figures have been much higher. These statements are not the result of mere guesK work, but of carefully verilied records taken from actual count.