The Transvaal WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 11451, 19 January 1901, Page 6

The Transvaal WAR.

RAIDING AND LOOTING. UNIVERSAL MARTIAL LAW BOTHA’S SUPPOSED MOVEMENTS. Pres* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 18. Three hundred Boers have looted Aberdeen. They retreated on the advance of 100 British. Two of the largest commandos are stationed at Roosenkal, north-east Transvaal, and Western Megaliesburg. It is reported that Botha is organising a raid on Natal. A patrol of Prince Alfred’s Guards surrendered near Steynburg after two hours’ fighting. The men were stripped and afterwards released. A commando has appeared in Little Namaqualand. Lord Kitchener reports that there are 5,000 Boers at Carolina. General Colville’s column was engaged at Vantondershoek, and the Boers were driven off with heavy loss. fiThe systematic collection of Boer families and stock at convenient centres is steadily proceeding. Voluntary refugees are given advantages over those families whose head is still with the commandos. The refugees are for the most part satisfied with this distinction. William Steyn, the peace delegate who was deputed to interview the Boers at Standerton, was arrested by the enemy and sent to Piet Retief on a charge of treason. All residents of the Cape Peninsula, except officials and soldiers, have been forbidden to possess arms or ammunition. After February 1 the entire colony except a few towns will be placed under martial law. It is intended to land additional naval gnns at Cape Town. THE SYBIL ASHORE. LONDON. January 18. The second class cruiser Sybil, ’which landed her men and guns at Lambert Bar on the 11th inst., is ashore at Saldaba Bay, Cape Colony. Those of the crew who had not landed were saved. THE COMMONWEALTH CONTINGENT. AIELBOURNE, January 19. (Received January 19, at 9.55 a.m ) The Government have received n taule from Sir A. Alilner covering one fnn Lord Kitchener. The latter expresses ins pleasure at the increase in the number of th« new contingent. He will be grate-al for a further 500. The Government have decided to send 1.000 men. BRITISH PRISONERS RELEASED. LONDON, January 18. (Received January 19, at 8.52 a.m.) The British prisoners held at Helvetia and Belfast have been released. SIB- A. AHLNER. LONDON, January 18. Sir A. Afilncr's departure from Pretoria has been indefinitely postponed. Pretoria is now full of troops. A RUSH FOR SERVICE. LONDON, January 18. The yeomanry, volunteers, and militia are eagerly responding to the formation of their proportion of volunteers and artillery required for service in South Africa. DEATH OF TWO NEW ZEALANDERS. Private advice has been received at Wellington that Trooper T. Alartin died of enteric fever at Pretoria on the 11th inst. News has just been received in Gisborne that Trooper Henry Kirkman, the first man to leave this district for the war, and who joined Lord Roberts’s Horse, died of enteric at Bloemfontein in April last. He resigned his position as a native schoolmaster to ?o to South Africa. ° THE PRESS AND THE WAR, Many people have run away with the idea that the newspapers have made a mint of money out of the South African war. The London ‘Express,’ however, shows that, instead of being an advantage to the newspapers, it baa been a terrible tax on their resources. The morning newspapers in Great Britain, especially in London, have suffered much more heavily than have their evening contemporaries. Practically, no evening newspaper had a correspondent at the front, but the morning newspapers had seventy or eighty, and these had to be maintained in the field, at an average cost of £4 a day, to which must bo added the tremendous bills that had to be paid for cabling what messages the correspondents were allowed to tend. Even after all these expenses had been incurred, the morning newspapers had very little return. For weeks together the cables were closed to them by the military authorities. All the news that was sent through was embodied in official reports, which were, of course, published as soon as they arrived, and given to all newspapers alike. It happened that most of the official n porta arrived at the War Office in the early part of the day, so that the evening newspapers, which bad no correspondents, except those of the news agencies, got all the advantages of the official cablegrams, while the poor morning newspapers had to be content with merely repeating them next morning. Great events during the war seem to have had a very marked effect on the circulation of some of the big dailies. The relief of Mafeking raised the circulation of the ‘ Westminster Gazette ’ by 100 per cent., and the entry into Pretoria by 200 per cent! In the provinces the ‘Liverpool Echo’ sell no fewer than 300,000 on Ladysmith Day. Victories created greater interest than defeats among the newspaper reading public, and it was when the news of the former arrived at the most favorable times for evening newspapers—that is, in the forenoon—that the records were made.