HOW MAFEKING WAS SUPPLIED WITH STORES.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10634, 19 April 1900, Page 5

HOW MAFEKING WAS SUPPLIED WITH STORES.

Some weeks ago the London correspondent of the "Scotsman" mentioned a little story related by Lord Kitchener in a home letter.

It told how the Prime Minister's son, Lard Edward Cecil, having taken on himself the personal responsibility of supplying Mofeking with four times the amount of stores thought necessary by the military authorities, was directly instrumental in creating the possibility of the town's long resistance of the beleaguering Boers. , A near relative of Lord Edward, whilst confirming Lord Kitchener's story, adds something to the credit of Colonel Baden-Powell. The contractor, a mere man of business, not being quite satisfied with the personal surety of the young Major for a sum estimated to reach £7000, asked for another at the back of the bill. Baden-Powell immediately added his, pledging the whole of his private property to meet the responsibility. Previous to this incident he had, according to my .informant, spent considerable sum of his own money in preparing Mafeking for the siege. Of course, it is all right now. No department, how.ever tied aid bound by red tape, dare refuee to take on itself the charges assumed by the two officers. All the same their risk was a very real one, and if things had gone wrong they might have been left to bear the burden.