Transvaal War

Feilding Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 1407, 11 April 1902, Page 2

Transvaal War

SPEECHES ON THE WAR. Telegraph. Press Association Copyright London, April 10. Mr Gerald Balfour, speaking at Leeds, said personally he was not sanguine about the result of the Boer leaders' consultations in South Africa. The terms offered in March, 1901, regarding the future status of the Transvaal and Orange Colony were still open ; but beyond that the Government were not prepared to go at present. Mr Long, speaking at Newington, said the Government were determined not to permit diplomacy to imperil the great sacrifices of the war. Earl Spencer, in a speech at Lincoln, urged the amnesty of the rebels and the early abolition of martial law, early self-government, and liberal expenditure on farms, but independence was impossible. MISCELLANEOUS. Lord Methuen is progressing well. It is announced that Heese, the German missionary, was a British subject. Mr Steyn is suffering from an affection of his eyes, which threatens blindness. The transport Manchester Merchant, with' 267 South Australian and Queensland soldiers, has sailed from Natal for Albany. BOER DELEGATES. The Boer delegates and General Botha have been conferring at Klerksdorp since Monday. They are now awaiting Commandant De la Rey and Mr Steyn. BOERS AS MISSIONARIES. Auckland, April 10. In a private letter to a friend in Auckland, Mr A. W. Baker, Managing Director of the South African Compounds Mission, writes : — " I hear that there have been religious revivals among the Boers at St. Helena. Over 30 of the converts have promised to become missionaries to the heathen on their return to South Africa. If this continues it will be a grand solution of the race problem, and they will return a freer, stronger, and better people than they were before the war. THE BOTHASBERG FIGHT. Christchurch, April 10. The son of Mr Hardie, Manager of the Farmers' Co-operative Association, writing under date February 28th, after describing the fight, says : " To-day Lord Kitchener came from Pretoria on purpose to see our New Zealand men. After lining us up he told us he had come to compliment us on the plucky stand made against such odds. He said our gallantry was a credit to New Zealand and to all the British Army and Empire. The way the men fought and remained in the trenches he said was one of the pluckiest things in the campaign, not one man leaving his post. The way they had stuck to this tiresome and hard work was a credit to them. Lord Kitchener talked in a very friendly manner. Several of the men are being mentioned in orders for the gallant way they stood to the pompom after all the gunners had been killed."