THE TRANSVAAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2050, 11 January 1901, Page 3

THE TRANSVAAL.

ll LONDON, January 3. The n«st western raiders in Cape Colony are. between Middelburg and Hanover, while a section have reached Glenbarry, near Graaf Reinet. where there is a British jfcjftrison. Some fighting has taken place *ne?r Middelburg. The railway was damaged south of Leifontein. The Rhenoster garrison repulsed an attempt of some Boers to seize a gun on a neighboring kopje. De Wet is said to have retreated in the direction of Lindley or Reitz. Colonel Pilcher prevented him reaching Bethlehem. General Knox is closely pursuing him. The. British military authorities have taken oyer all the supplies in Kimberley. Boers have been seen in the vicinity of • Ladysmith. Fourteen hundred Boer prisoners have left Cape Town for St. Helena. Martial law has been proclaimed in Fraserburg, Prince Albert, Worcester, Ceres, and Sutherland, in Cape Colony. A consignment of bullets and dynamite from Cape Town, packed in condensed milk tins, has been seized at Fraserburg. Lord Methuen is pursuing some Boer convoys past Vryburg. Private Morgan, of the New South Wales Bushmen, has died from his wounds. " The horses of the Boer raiders in Cape Colony are footsore and lack fodder. The country in the direction of Fraserburg is barren. The military authorities are collecting all reniounts and grain. The Boers captured and destroyed mails due at Carnarvon on the 30th. Tlie Boers from the eastward have reached Maraisburg', and small parties in Griqualand West are working towards Prieska. The feeling at Cape Town is that strong reinforcements are imperative. The absence of an actual rising in Cape Colony is ascribed to.the lack of aims. •The invaders are everywhere assisted with information, and horses are in many places freely .offered. Lord Roberts has arrived in London. He had'a splendid welcome, 14,000 troops lining the streets from Paddington station to Buckingham Palace. ADELAIDE, January 3.

Some’4oo men, including about twenty who have-ierved in previous contingents, have volunteered for South Africa. ,/Melbourne, January 3. , Large numbers of men are volunteering freely in response to Lord Kitchener’s request for additional mounted troops.

MELBOURNE, January 4

Lord Kitchener has cabled to the Minister of Defence that he understands Australia i>i sending men to till vacancies in the contingents. tind asks when he may expect them. Lord Kitchener pays a high tribute to the Australian soldiers, and adds that if a proportion of men over and above the number required are sent it will enable him to send home some of those who have urgent private reasons for returning. He also asks that the men be fully horsed. _ It is intended to send about 400 men and extra horses. ' A letter received from a member of Brabant’s Horse throws light upon Mr Bryn Roberts’s charges against the South African colonial troops. The writer states: In October, last year, the Kaffrarian Rifles and Border Horse struck, and laid down their arms. r he colonel threatened to put the Cape Mounted Rifles’ gun on them. They taid they would give them a fight for it if attempted such a thing; so you can TOiagine- it vas fair mutiny. All those who refused duty were taken prisoners, and in face of the enemy put off the field in disace. They declined to give up their arms on the ground that they were necessary for their protection; but their horses, saddles, and bridles were taken. I believe* they had to go before Lord Roberts on a dharge of mutiny while on active service.”

AN OATH-BREAKER MEETS HIS DESERTS. It will be remembered that on November J. a party of Boers stealthily approached in the dead of night a farmhouse occupied by a patrol of Compton’s Horse, and, firing through the window, killed two men who were seated at a table writing home. The remainder of the patrol were taken prisoners, but were subsequently released. A. few days ago an Italian named Lrrigi Deli was arrested within the municipality on suspidon of being a spy, and he was identified as beine- one of the Boer party which attacked the farmhouse. He was taken before Major O’Brien and a military tribunal, and charged With breaking the oath of neutrality. On taking the oath the prisoner had applied for an order which enabled him to proceed to the farm on the pretence of obtaining work. He then joined the Boer commando. Both charges were proved against the prisoner, and he was sentenced to be hanged. After his removal from the court Deli admitted having fired the shot which killed one of the men in the farmhouse.

" THERE’iWSIE NO “DISASTERS.” General-'Duller, when receiving the freedom of the City of Exeter, admitted that there were one or two checks at the commencement of the war operations, some of which had been called disasters, but he did not think there had really been any disasters," in the true sense of the word, in South Africa. • His reading of the word disaster was serious loss in which one gained no compensating advantages. There had been nothing of that sort that he knew of in South Africa. There were eases in which strong 'places were attacked and not taken in fiist .instances, and cases where small numbers ,of men were overpowered "by greater masses, Amt the men bore themselves like men, and in the end it resulted in the achievement of the operation in which the whole army was 'concerned. Referring to Spion Kop, he said this had, by almost all writers in England been termed a “ disaster.” It was severe lighting for five days, which culminated in an attack on a position which was ——taken and afterwards abandoned. The problem at the moment was not only to cross "the Tugela, but to get over a mountain, and then march sixteen miles with a large supply column to feed the people of Ladysmith. T’he operation was not successful, and the troops were withdrawn. It had been called . disaster; but the troops while in action ! q;' +pf i far more Toss on the enemy than thev themselves suffered. They yielded uothiim an cl when they retired they left the enemy in a panic. He told his troops next d-iv that their gallantry had shown him the mid to Ladysmith. The men had crossed +r.it river really as recruits, and came back warriors. He was laughed at by English papers, and became the recipient of a verv quantity of old iron, which was -seiff him by his German critics; but the A,,,], W as on his side, for it did not reach uni j; pc was inside Ladysmith.— "w (b ers.) "