THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 127, 30 May 1900, Page 4

THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

What was the Orange Free State has now been "painted red," for it was on Monday formally annexed to the British Crown. Thus ends one Republic that took up arms to make South Africa Dutch instead of British. For the other, the latest as we write is that panic and confusion reign throughout the Transvaal." An earlier message sets out that panic prevails at Pretoria, and

that Louis Botha has urged President Kruger to capitulate, assuring him that neither persuasion nor tJie sjambok will rally the men, who are being driven/ like geese. Clinging still to his belief in the intervention of the last power; to which he can make appeal, the distracted old man is urging his burghers to avert God's wrath by abandoning their loot, and observing two days of humiliation and prayer. We hope the burgheYs may prove deaf to this entreaty, for they would mo^t certainly be in better trim for fighting at the end of their religious exercise. The truth lies of British barbarities which probably is that the fantastic and idiotic Kruger and Steyn have hitherto employed to harden the hearts of the ignorant — r and their name is legion — to continue the fight, are now coming home to roost. The Boer women, the farmers' wives, have accepted the remarkable inventions of the Presidents with unquestioning faith, and now that the barbarous "rooinek&" are actually invading their homej^ thes>e distracted women will naturally implore their fathers, husbands, and brothers, to lay down their arms and return to their farms. The grotesque inventions of the leaders when the enemy was distant served their purpose ; but now that he is at the gate those within who have been credulous enough to believe ir- the atrocities attributed to him will be naturally desirous to appease his wrath ere it be too late. The lies have come home to roost. When General William T. Sherman, the great Federal General, in September, 1864, moved out of Atlanta with 65,000 men on his famous march to the sea, no one supposed that it was the beginning of a movement that . would break the back of the Confederate rebellion. In. that. world-famous march Sherman with his army moved from Atlanta to Savannah, 300 miles, in 24 days, and the Confederate cause was lost. It looks to-day as though there is to be a historic paral-. lei in Roberts's march on Pretoria, and that the surrender* of Louis Botha and his army will, like 'that of the Confederate General, Lee, be the signal for a cessation of the war. Botha is urging Kruger to capitulate, but that means to surrender on terms, and Oom Paul will know full well that if he surrenders at all it must be unconditionally. So he keeps a train in readiness for flight, and has commandoes stationed along the line to Delagoa Bay to keep open the way of escape. There must be quick decision, for the invaders are pressing so hard upon the heels of the retreating burghers that in their present demoralised condition they will not get time to re-form and make any stand worthy of the name before they reach Pretoria. At Klip River the gallant Westralians came within an ace of capturing their guns, and at tho rate at which the British horsemen are now moving, it is not a far cry from Klip River north-east to the PretoriaDelagoa railway, hence the Boer commandoes guarding the line. Then on the west a move has been made from Mafeking with even greater expedition than we had hoped. The western army is moving in two divisions in different directions. One of these has occupied Zeerust, a small town about 40 miles northeast of Mafeking, while what is described as "a large force" — possibly Hunter's — is approaching Lichtenburg, 40 miles ta the south-east of Mafeking. This force appears to be moving towards Klerksdorp to junction with Methuen, and menace the Boer position in the Gatraand mountains, while the first-mentioned advances direct for Pretoria. The sum of it all is that the Boers at the heart of the Transvaal appear to bo thoroughly demoralised, and if Lord Roberts can only keep up the pace, the end of the war is within measuraole distance, if it is not imminent. , A cable . despatch now to hand (1.20 p.m.) announces officially that Johannesburg has been captured. It comes sooner than we had hoped, but waving come so soon it means, we think, -that the fall of Pretoria is near, and with it the surrender of the Transvaal Government.