KRUGER ON THE SITUATION.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10480, 19 October 1899, Page 6

KRUGER ON THE SITUATION.

"I cannot pretend to say that in our interview the President talked freely. He is not, I should think, given to loquacity at any time. Hβ prefer* to let others ask questions and then to answer in his own characteristic manner, partly by gesture, partly by simile. For instance, being asked what he would do if the English declared war, be shrugged his shoulders and then, after a pause, said: 'If you meet a lion in the middle of the road and ■<* passes on you prefer to let him go instead of attacking him; but if the lion gets you into a corner you just have to fight.' That wsj one of his similes, and there were others of a similar nature that I cannot recall. He seemed to be very bitter again*! the English generally. One of bis remarks was that he was pleased to meet mc because I was an American, and bis only regret was that I spoke English. He did not show any disposition to rely on America's mediatorial onlcee, but he did say he felt sure of the sympathy and the moral support of America in caee of war. In an ofinand way he spoke of the American War of Independence, and in the rebellion of the States against English rule he found occasion for comparison with the present position of the Boers. "Nothing that said, however, could be interpreted *? a statement of the Boer side of the argument with England, | and he was decidedly uncommunicative on the subject of tbe negotiations then going on between the two countries. He could not be drawn on these matters. But there were one or two members of the Raad on the verandah with \n K joining in tbe conversation, and they gave mc to understand that the President s presence at the Bioemfontein Conference.was a pure formality." "During my interview with Kruger he expressed no resentment against Mr Chamberlain or any of the Home authorities.' THE BOERS MARKSMEN. "Every man on the Boer' 3 side in tint Transvaal war is a breod-wsnner, and yea well see ih the ranks a grandfather side by side with his sons and h» son's sms, every man of them a maiksnaan. When I wee at Pretoria fcoey were practising with, tie new Frencu macmne guns. They used no matltematJcal apparatus for taJtJfcg sight, but relied on their eye and their judgment, and, taking aim at a. beacon three miles away, they tut it with four shota out of six. Wonderful eyesigM a lot of these men have. .Mr t < iUitbaJl drove mc into the country one day, and, pulling up at a farmhouse for a drink, an odd mtui of ninety welcomed us at the door and si/d: 'I thoujlit I saw you on top of the hilL There are not many men of ninety who would see a fellow on top of a hill a mtte away in any other country. As : to their markmansfkip, a Boer will take one j cartridge from the shelf and send his boy out to shoot a buck. One cartridge only! No allowance for miaees with these people. "There was drilling going on at Pretoria when I was there, but strictly speaking I could not say whether there was any military organisation that I saw. They were, however, training the men to the use of the big guns in the fort*. Ido not think that this wiil be a war of artillery. Tbe Boers will put their men into the field in companies of 150 or so and subdivide these into small parties, who will lie behind .kopjes and in that way get inside tbe artillery range and pick the men off. In tbe cavalry charge of the Jameson Raid the horses did not advance forty *B*ces fresn their original position. Every horse was shot through tbe bead and every man too. Tbe Boers do not think they can whrp England, but, I as a memhar of the Rand said to mc, if a column marches into tbe Boer country their officers wfll be picked off, and the troop un- , nerved. It is a common ftVng for tfa* i Boers to get rifle practice by taking a rtone , and throwing it into the air and saoot'ng 1 it before it fall*, and tfa» men who oaa do that b»v be seen any d&y riding fleetly into Johannesburg not with rifles slung upoo. , tbeir sboabfan, bat *■ jof-trot femurs intent on driving a bargaia. Tbsgr do their , drilling shun !><■«.