BRITON V. BOER.

Lake County Press, Issue 906, 12 April 1900, Page 5

BRITON V. BOER.

London, April 5. General Gatacre is at Springfontein, co-operating with the forces at Bloemfontein in protecting the lines of communication. Cronje and Colonel Schiel have been dr ported from Simonstown to St. Helena with 1000 prisoners. The newspapers are agreed that Lord Roberts' frank efforts at conciliation have been premature, and that leniency has been interpreted as weakness.

Commandant Pretorioue, who was wounded-and captured at Elandslaagte, and who was recently sent home at the request of his wife owing to the loss of a leg, occupied a cart at the Doornspruit fight. His farm is situated in the vicinity. His family and servants were amongst the first looters of the British convoy. According to the storv of refugees at Bloomfontein, the Boers on the Basutoland border have cruelly ill-treated burghers who surrendered. Some were shot, and many, by intimidation, were forced to rejoin the Boer ranks. Major Booth, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, two other officers, and two men, on Saturday, at Bloemfontein waterworks, kept 500 Boers at bay, enabling Major-General Broadwood to secure a good position. Major Booth was killed. The townspeople at Bloemfontein are restless at the turn of events. Lord Roberts has ordered civilians to be indoors by eight o'clock at night. Several residents have been arrested for trafficking with the enemy. Mafeking reported all well on the 27th March. The Boers were breaking their laager west of the town and fighting with the natives in the south. Oolotel Plumer, by night marches, reached near Zeerust on the 25th, and damaged the Boer communications. He then returned north to Pitsani. Remounts, for General French's cavalry are arriving at Bloemfontein. In Colonel Pilcher's recent outpost engagement at Ladybrand when the landdrost was captured, 25 Boers were killed. He managed to retain the landdrost during the fighting at Doornspruit, and he was brought to Bloemfontein. Capetown, April 5. A dozen Boer prisoneis, malingerers in the hospital at Simonstown, who attempted to escape, were shipped to St. Helena. London, April 6. Ninety Dragoon Guards charged the Boers on Sunday and recaptured 91 prisoners taken at Doornspruit on Saturday, including 11 officers. General Clements reached five miles north of Bloemfontein without opposition. A company of mounted Queenslanders is at Bushmen's Hock, The enemy's skirmishers are round to the south-west. Artillery fire has been heard south of Bloemiontein. A commando demanded General Brabant's surrender at Wepener to avoid bloodshed. They were told that there was no answer and the Boers opened an attack, Pretoria claims a victory at Ramathlabama on the 31st and states that twenty of Plumer's men were killed, including five officers, and nine captured. Baden-Powell ineffectually sortied from Mafeking simultaneously. The Daily News states that 70 shells fell in Mafeking on Friday morning, which is the record. There are still 2000 besiegers, but it is thought that many have deseited. At the Koorn Spruit ambush 17 New Zealanders, under Major Robin, were, captured. The remainder of the New Zealanders fought their way clear of the ambush. April 7. Several members of the Imperial Yeomanry were killed at Koorn Spruit. The British casualties numbered 450. It is officially reported that General Broad wood's loss included the following New Zealanders : —Missing : Quai-termaster-sergeant Sadler, Sergeant Harris, Privates Jewell, Miller, Pope, Powell, Tarrant, Valentine, VVyllie, Butters, Catherall, Coasar, Franklin, Heenan, Prosser, Palmer, and Waldie. The extrication of General Broadwood's forces at Koorn Spruit was due to the efficient work done by four guns of the Q Battery. When the latter were warned of their danger they retreated from the crescent of the donga, which was spouting fire at the British guns, and then came into action to allow Roberta's Horse and the Mounted Infantry to re-form. They succeeded in checking the onward rush of the enemy. The battery was afterwards dragged clear, the Mounted Tnfantry, among whom were the Queenslanders, covering its retreat. Despite the proximity of the enemy the Australian Horse and the New South Wale* Lancers rose to their feet and loudly cheered the gallant remnant of the artillery as they retired. The Transraal account of the ambush is characteristic. The Boers claim that they have captured 389 prisoners, besides some cannon. All the prisoners captured at Koorn Spruit have been sent to Winburg. According to the Boer version, there are among tho documents found in the captured convoy plans correcting Dr Jameson's route from Mafeking to Pretoria, also a list of the Free State burghers who had surrendered. The Boers claim that their losses at Koorn Spruit were only three killed and 10 wounded. The newspapers discredit the Boer assertions that they captured at Koorn Spruit the British plans of the invasion of the two Republics. April 7. General Bioadwood's casualties included the following Queensland Mounted Infantry :—Killed : Corporal Couley and Private Reece. Wounded dangerously: Private Strong. Wounded slightly : Private Logan. Missing : Bombardier Wieck, Privates Breydon, Spurway, H. Johnson, and Staines. Official reports are to hand th*t a strong Boer force, with four guns, on Wednesday surrounded and captured three companies of the Royal Irish Rifles and two companies of the 9th Mounted Infantry at Reddersburg, 35 miles south of Bloemfontein. The fighting lasted 21 hours. The Times, commenting on the Reddersburg fight, insists on the urgency of entrenching isolated positions to enable them to stand a short siege. It forecasts that it will be a war of small actions equally with great combinations. Possibly the war will be wholly one of detail.

Mr Wyndham stated, on March 31, that the Boer prisoners numbered 5000, and the British 3466. Ten men wore killed at Reddersburg and 35 were wounded, while 546 prisoners were taken. The. Boers numbered 3200. Fifty men of Kitchener'* Horse were surrounded and captured at Riet River, after offering a desperate resistance. The 50 men of the " I " squadron of Kitchener's Horse, who were captured, were guarding a farm on the Riet River on March 15, when they were surrounded by the enemy. They offered a desperate resistance, loopholed the walls of the farmhouse, and were for three days without food. They then managed to catch a goat. All their horses died from starvation. On the fourth day the men were completely exhausted, and surrendered. Four hundred Boers were engaged in the attack. General Clements marched continuously for 15 days. The march throughout was uneventful, the country everywhere being peaceful. General Brabant's engagement at Wepener was confined to the outposts. A detachment of Australians captured 1000 head ..of cattle near Brandfort. General Lord Methuen at Boshof killed seven of the enemy, including Count De Villebois Mareuil, the French strategist. Lord Methuen also took 54 prisoners, nobody escaping. The fighting lasted four hours. After the Boers had hoisted a white flag at Boshof a Boer shot Captain Boyle, of the Imperial Yeomanry, dead. The murderer was killed A British force reoccupied Upington (Bechuanaknd) without opposition. Two men were arrested at Beaufort West for attempting to wreck the train which conveyed Sir A. Milner from Bloemfontein to the Cape. Major-general Hutton, late commandant of the Canadian forces, has been appointed to the command of a division composed of Carbineers, Australians, and Canadians at Bloemfontein. Mr Cf.cil Rhodes has arrived in London. He returns to Rhodesia in a few weeks. The two companies of Irish Guards, which the Queen recently directed to be enrolled, have been ordered to be embodied as a new regiment, and will generally be stationed in Ireland. Orders have also been issued for the embodiment of a royal reserve, consisting of regiments of Dragoon Guards, Dragoons, Hussars, and Lancers—each regiment to consist of 594 men. President Kruger is minting British money, dated 1892. He declares that the output of the Trahsveal gold mines is ample to covsr the cost of the war. The Daily Mail makes complimentary references to Australian liberality to the war funds, especially the Melbourne Argus Kipling poem fund. Captain Hall Owen, of the Victorian Medical Corps, died frorjfc e,nter.ic fever, and Trooper Marsden/of South Australia, of pneumonia. After the battle at Reddersburg, detachments sent from Bloemfontein and Springfontein obtained no news of the missing British force. New York, April 6. The New York Herald has been authorised to state that the Boers do not intend to destroy property at Johannesburg. It is supposed that this anncucraent has been made with a view to smooth the way to peace overtures, and also that the Bot r peace emissaries recently sent to Europe may have an easier task before them. Capetown, April S. The Boers are still at Reddesburg. General Clements, during his recent march, received four thousand surrenders. Five guns and ten thousand horses are expected at the Cape during the week. Two thousand horses were lost during the march to Bloemfontein. Soft-nosed and split-lipped bullets were used by the enemy at Boshof. The prisoners are mostly Frenchmen, Germans and Hollanders. Fifteen hundred Boers have been relanded at Simonstown owing to the outbreak of fever among them on board ship. Thirty effected their escape apparently through the help of Afrikanders. A contingent of bluejackets from H.M.S. Monarch have been sent to Bloemfontein. London, April 10. Fischer, a member of the Free State Executive, now in Europe, has been fully empowered to negotiate for peace. The third contingent of New Zealanders has sailed for. Beira (Portuguese territory), en route for Rhodesia. Horses and men are very tit. General Hutton's Brigade consists of Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders. The colonials Appreciate the honor of constituting a new division and anticipate much service. Reuter states that a portion of the Eighth Division, sent to Port Elizabeth, has been recalled and will land at Capetown. General Rundle has been ordered to Kimberley on special duty. Mafeking was safe and cheerful on the Ist inst. . j The enemy on the 23rd abandoned their advanced trench to the eastward and Sergeant Page, of the Cape Police, examined a mine he laid near the trench prior to the siege. He discovered that the dynamite was goDe and suspecting that the abandoned trench had been mined he made a search *nd unearthed a copper wire which he cut. He found that ifc was connected with 250 ib gelignite and dynamite under the trench.

After abandoning their advanced tr-nch at Mafeking the Boers trekked outwards and then moved in to the westward, concealing 500 men, with tnree guns, in a hollow. Colonel Baden-Powell, noticing this, declined their ambush.