CABLE NEWS. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH-COPYRIGHT.]

Evening Post, Volume LXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1901, Page 5

CABLE NEWS. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH-COPYRIGHT.]

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR. ♦ — BOER RAIDERS. COMMANDOES IN THE WEST. [PBESS ASSOCIATION. 1 LONDON, 2nd December. Commandoes totalling 1500 men occupy positions in Western Cape Colony. They are some distance from the railways, and in localities where water is scarce. Lieutenant-General French, with eight columns, is operating southwards and eastwards of the invaders, and loyalist troops occupy various villages. {Received December 3, 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, 2nd December. The Boers in Cape Colony are raiding Dutch and British settlers alike, thus alienating many sympathisers. Commandant Brand has again invaded the colony and has been joined by a hundred and fifty Boers northwards of Philipstown, in Northern Cape Colony. Major Pack Beresford, skirmishing northwards from Bultfontein. in the west of Orange River Colony, captured eleven Boers and many horses. Minor captures have been made elsewhere. DEFENCE OF CAPE COLONY. SPEECH BY SIR GORDON SPRIGG. POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. LONDON, 2nd December. Sir J. Gordon Sprigg, Premier of Cape Colony, speaking at the Caledonian Society's banquet, said tne army of Cape Oojlony numbered 18,000 men, threefourths being mounted infantry, and was increasing weekly. The colony, he said, was controlling 31 districts, including the Transkei territory, on the east coast, with a view to preventing the return of the invaders or their encouragement thereto, and was also paying the whole cost of the town guards. The Cape Government and Lord Kitchener were working in perfect harmony. The meeting of Parliament, continued Sir Gordon, was dependent on the ending of the war. The attrition of the enemy was proceeding steadily, and the loyalists were of a hopeful turn of mind, but a large debt had been incurred in maintaining the requisite forces to meet the exigencies of the war. A Customs Conference would be the first step from which the federation of the States would gradually mature. The Government, ihe. concluded, opposed the ultimate subdivision of tha colony into two States. - THE OATH OF NEUTRALITY. (Received December 3, 9.35 a.m.) i LONDON, 2nd December. Boers are constantly escaping from the concentration camps and joining commandos, regardless of the oath of neutrality. There is a considerable increase in the number of Boers swearing allegiance both in the Orange River and Transvaal colonies. DENUNCIATION OF PRO-BOERS. (Received December 3, 9.3.1 a.m.) LONDON, 2nd December. The Rev. W. J. Knox-Little, Vicar of Hoar Cross and Canon of Worcester, during the course of a sermon, advocated the driving out of traitors at Home and abroad, whose language caused a prolongation of the war and continued shedding of blood. \ \