Transvaal War

Feilding Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 119, 16 November 1901, Page 2

Transvaal War

■ ■ » BRITISH CONVOY CAPTURED

Telegraph. Press Association Copyright Lokdcn, November 14. Commandant Mariz captured a convoy at Corendam after a stiff 6ght, disabling fourteen out of the escort of thirty-five. The Boers lost similarly. They remored six waggons and burned the rest. The Hon. St. John Brodrick, Minister for War, speaking at the City Carlton Club, said the Boers frequently murdered Kaffirs in order to conceal their tracks from the pursuing columns. Lord Kitchener had just cabled that cold-blooded murders by Boers were frequent of late, and gave several shocking instances. If such conduct became general the perpetrators must be treated at bandits and desperadoes. The blockhouses built have excluded Boers from 14,700 square miles of country in the Transvaal, and 17,000 in the Orange River Colony. 42,000 adult -male Boers have been captured, 11,000 killed, wounded and left the country. It is believed there were 10,000 still in the field. The raiders who were expelled from the Midlands of Cape Colony, are reassembling at Calvinia, in the northwest. The Government are sending two regiments of cavalry and 2000 other mounted troopers, two regular line battalions, and some militia regiments to South Africa, and India would supply battalions far two cavalry regiments. A colony (not South African) has offered fresh contingents. It is announced that Major-General Sir Archibald Hunter will command the Fourth Army Corps, and that General Evelyn Waod and the Duke of Connaught, commanding the Second and Third Armys Corps respectively, are both iv command in the field in the event of the corps being ordered on active service. A PATROL OVERPOWERED. November 15. A patrol of local mounted troops at Jansenville, in the Midlands of Cape Colony, wa3 worsted by an inBignificant force of Boers. This is similar to a case which occurred at Somerset East, and is said to suggest treachery. The regular officer who was commanding shot most of the horses to prevent the Boers capturing- them. RAIDERS NEAR CAPETOWN. A commando numbering 60 raided the district south of Darling (40 miles north of Capetown) for the purpose of obtaining fresh horses and punishing the lukewarm Dutch supporters. The Capetown Guards have been sent out to repel the invaders. MISCELLANEOUS. The Daily Telegraph's correspondent describes the use by the Boers of expanding bullets in recent battles, and their callous robbery of the dying and the dead. Sandberg, General Botha's aide-de-camp, is lecturing in France. He declares the Boers will insist on their independence and the possession of Cape Colony owing to British cruelty in the Transvaal and Orange Colony. Earl Selbourne, speaking at Leeds, said the Boers were absolutely irreconcilable. If responsible government were granted them immediately they would use it like a rifle against us. There must be an interim period for reconstruction on the basis of just, free, and firm government. Time would do the rest. Great Britain granted Belgium £4000 to settle the claims of Belgians deported from South Africa. DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL. Wellington, November 15. Sergt-Major E. B. Lockett, of the Seventh Contingent (Wanganui), is among those who are to have the Distinguished Conduct Medal bestowed upon them for Vl services in the defence of Forts Itala and Prospect, capture of Lotter's com - mando, and other recent engagements in South Africa."