The Transvaal WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 11453, 22 January 1901, Page 6

The Transvaal WAR.

WANDERING COMMANDOS.

A NEW" ZEALANDER KILLED

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

LONDON, January 21. Eleven farmers have been arrested and brought before General Cradock for drilling and inviting the invaders to their homes.

Some native scouts have captured 400 horses at Wolvehoep.

Commandant Hertzog, at Calvinia, is anxiously inquiring for General De la Rey's whereabouts. Seven hundred rifles have been handed to the authorities at Carnarvon. The town guard and detachments of the Australians at Willowmore repelled 400 of Krnitzinger's Boers. While covering a trap-mine worked on a level with the earth near Zeenist, the weight pressed too heavily on the lever used to fire the charge, with the result that the mine exploded, killing Lieutenant Wallace (North Lancashire Regiment) and Corporal Edwards (New Zealand Artillery). [Corporal H. A. Edwards was a member of the Fifth Contingent, and belonged to Auckland.]

THE PENALTY OF RAIDING. LONDON, January 21. (Received January 22, at 8.36 a.m.) The Boers had seven men killed and forty wounded in the fighting which recently-took place at Blaaklaagate, in the Barkly West district. THE BOER AND THE NATIVE. LONDON, January 21. Some native police whom the Boers had captured in the neighborhood of Wfllowmore were shot by them. WANDERING DESPERADOES. LONDON, January 21. Kruitzinger's and Scheeper's commandos are now advancing on Uniondale and Ondsthorn, to the south-west of Willowmore. REGIMENT OF SCOTTISH HORSE. LONDON, January 21. (Received January 22, at 8.56 a.m.) For the regiment of Scottish Horse which are now forming at Durban arrangements are completed, under which recruits, approved by the agents at Australian ports, will be offered a free passage to South Africa.

BUYING, NOT COMMANDEERING.

LONDON, January 21

The 300 horses and mules which had been commandeered by the British in the Carnarvon district have been paid for.

RETURNING NEW ZEAL-ANDERS.

SYDNEY, January 21. The following New Zealanders who served in regiments raised in South Africa have returned by the Damascus: —Hamilton, Geary,' Parks, Henderson, Pafleet, Thompson, and Keogh.

A BRAVE OANXDIAN SCOUT.

Lieutenant Morrison, of Ottawa, in a letter from the camp of the Canadian Artillery near Belfast, in the Vaal River Colony, gives a sketch of the Canadian Mounted Rifles and their work on the kopjes. After describing. the advance of a party under Colonel Lessard, and his splendid courage, he says;, " You would not wonder at the good opinion entertained for Canadian troops out here if you saw the splendid work of the Royal Canadian Dragoons (formerly the First C.M.R.). On parade they look like a regiment of cowboys, with their shaggy litlc ponies, prairie hats, and rough-and-ready uniform—for their original kit is worn .out, and they wear all sorts of clothes they can pick up. 1 have seen all sorts of mounted troops out here—regular cavalry, mounted infantry, regular and irregular, and none of them are in it with the ' Canydians,' for the sort of work to be done. Their outpost work is the best I have seen by long odds, for the simple reason that they know how to keep under cover. So far, all the British soldier has learned in this war is to keep under cover when he is. being fired at. When not being fired at he chooses by preference a conspicuous position on lie sky line or a hill top, and the Boers know just exactly where he is and how many of him there are. The Canadians keep under cover all the time, taking up their positions before daylight, and the Boers never know where they will stumble on them or how many will be there. The value of this was shown the other morning, when they attempted to cut the railway near here. A body of Boers attacked our main body while fifty galloped off to a flank to get round and blow up the rails. There was one man posted in some rocks over to the flank, and when he saw the fifty going past him, instead of running to his horse, which was also under cover, and making off, he opened as rapid a fire as possible on the enemy. Taken by surprise, and thinking they had stumbled into another position, the fifty Boers wheeled round and rode off as hard as they could go, abandoning their object. I was speaking to some of Botha's men, who fought in all the battles down Natal way. They were particularly intelligent men, and they bore the strongest possible testimony to the bravery of the British soldiers, especially the infantry, but they spoke with regret rather than admiration at the manner in which they threw away their lives. 'They would come walking towards us when they were ordered to advance against a position we held,' said a keen-looking chap, with gold eye-glasses, .'and we just shot them down as quickly as we could load and fire. It was a battue. We often spoke among ourselves how sorry we were to kill brave men like that But what could we do? We always shot the officers in preference to the men. They were brave, but too foolish. Whv did thev bring their men un like that?'" ' *

It is ascertained that there are 195 vacancies in the present Contingents in South Africa, divided as follows:—Second, 80Third, 56; Fourth, 31; Fifth, 26. The men now in camp here are being given the option of joining any of these Contingents if thev desire.