PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12427, 16 February 1901, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

— A STARTLING CHANGE. INVASION OF CAPE TOWN. SPIRITED RESISTANCE. (By Ot/r Special Correspondent.) GAPE TOWN, Jan. 16. THE BOER INVASION. Since my last letter was written, rtaw some three weeks ago, the situation in South Africa has undergone a complete change. The Cape Colony has once again been invaded by the forces of the enemy ; the quiet towns and villages of the Mid Karoo, indhc very heart of the colony, have been awaken-, ed in the morning by the boom of guns, and gone to sleep at night to the accompaniment of the rifle fusiladc. From-three to four thousand Boers, in scattered parties of two or three hundred each, are roaming iar and wide through the Queen’s territories, and have even penetrated to within a hundred and fifty miles of Cape Town itself. These latter forces have so far done no mischief beyond looting the farms of the inhabitants of tho country. They have carefully avoided the larger towns, where there were any British garrisons, and, living oil the land, and aided by the kindly advice of their sympathisers among the colonial Dutch, they have found no difficulty in getting as far south as Calvinia in the west, and Middlebnrg in the east. The result of the invasion has been a call to arms which has echoed right through the colony, and has met with a splendid response. Every little village where there, are any loyalists—in some there arc none—-has equipped- itself with a Town Guard. J/n the great centres of population, mounted men and cyclists corps in numbers have been raised and despatched to the crucial points of danger with astonishing celerity.. Within: the past fortnight, Cape Town has raised over two thousand men for active service, while nine thousand men here have enrolled themselves as Town Guards, prepared to do battle should emergency arise, and the flame of war eat its way right clown into the Cape Peninsula, So far, little authentic news of the invaders has been obtainable. We know of their advance only by hurried messages from some outlying village; reporting that Boers have been seen so many miles away, and then the next thing- is that communication with that village is interrupted, and the Boers have arrived. They have “occupied” half a dozen little villages in the barren wastes in the north-west and west of the colony, and it. is clear that their object in coming south was to raise up the standard of rebellion once more, and to win as many Gape Afrikanders to their ranks as possible. It is now known that De Wet was contemplating such a raid long ago, but the determined way in which General Knox dogged his footsteps, and kept a, line between him and the colony, prevented his doing so earlier. The present- invaders arc a portion of his commando, and in attempting to follow them he was overtaken in time, and forced to retreat to the north of the Orange River Colony. The invading Boers have brought but little equipment with them.'They brought plenty of horses, and'(hey need them, for their extraordinary mobility is oulj purchased at the sacrifice of much valuable horseflesh, and their advance is marked by the sketeltons of hundreds of their mounts. In these men the colony has nothing very serious to fear. It is the possibility of a general! rising of the Capo Dutch that has led to such extraordinary precautions being taken by the military and to such enthusiastic recruiting on the part of the colonists themselves. Hitherto, however, the invaders have been sadly disappointed‘in their expectations. Ho 'far asiis known they have been joined bply by twenty or so, riff-raff colonial Dutch loafers on farms, with nothing to lose, and the possibility of a little plunder if they assist their dear brethren from over the Orange River. Upon all the Boer forces in the colony the net is being rapidly closed; strong forces- are advancing upon them fro in different directions, and the. very desperateness of their mad incursion shows that they are at the last gasp. A SHARP ENGAGEMENT. Up to the beginning of January matters in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony had been very quiet for some weeks. ■ In, the former colony the Boers continued very active in their attacks upon’trains, convoys and isolated posts, the number of men engaged being only a few hundreds, and the attacks being invariably in the nature of a surprise. The great majority of these attacks were successfully repulsed, but as usual the enemy obtained some minor successes. Since then, however, there have been some graver operations, in which the British troops have suffered severely. It must be. always remembered that such mishaps are inevitable in guerilla warfare, and though we may lose thirty men here, and a hundred there, the Boer cause is not benefited thereby one iota, and the ultimate issue is not affected in the slightest degree.

The most -serious of, these affairs occurred at Lindley, just ten days ago. Lindley will he- remembered as the spot made famous by the unhappy surrender of the Yeomanry in May last, on account of which General Colville has recently been requested to resign his command. It has been alternately under the. British and Boer flag eighteen times during the past twelve months. The tale of the recent fight is one of such heroism iliat it is worth narrating' in detail.

Lord Kitchener's bodyguard has been; at- J tached for some months to,Colonel White’s j column, under General Charles Knox, and j lias been doing excellent, work in chasing ,L)e Wet. On the morning of Jan. 5 Colonel White ordered Colonel Laing (the officer commanding the bodyguard) "to take 150 men of his force- to endeavoqr to get in touch with the town of licit z. Early in the day the Boers were seen about five miles on our right and left in small numbers, but on sighting-us they appeared to retire. suddenly. As we were riding up a valley in column of troops, shots were heard on our right, and one of our scouts came galloping back to the main body, his horse being shot dead just as be came up. His comrade bad been shot through the head by an expanding bullet. Colonel Laing gave the order for one squadron to wheel to the right and trot. This was,the last word heard from the gallant colonel. The enemy, from a splendid position on a kopje, opened, a terrific fire-a t six;hundred -yards, with the result that many of the body guards’ saddles were emptied. Our men Alien .wheeled, hoping to take up a position on their left, but were met by a hailstorm of bullets from thatquarter. Seeing the strength of the enemy, which was known to bo 1000, and the excellence of their position, we. tried to retire on Colonel White’s column, which was only a few miles to our rear, but the enemy had anticipated this movement, and placed 600 men between us and White. The body guard, seeing the hopelessness of their position, then, determined to sell their lives dearly. They galloped to a donga, which afforded some cover, and fought like tigers., When someone suggested surrender, it only caused the others to cry out , “ Surrender be d d.” Colonel Laing was shot right through the body, about this time, a, Mar-tini-Henry bullet piercing his heart. Then commenced an arvful carnage. The enemy, ■taking heart on seeing the effect of their fire,' and the weakened strength of the body guard, commenced to come closer and closer. The men never flinched,-firing with coolness and determination. Our officers, who, had taken the dead men’s rifles, and ivere lending all their aid in the thick of the fight,, were falling fast, killed or wounded. One officer, Lieutenant. Bateson, managed to gallop through the Boers and reached Colonel White, to whom he reported: the desperate plight of the body guard. Colonel White despatched a force wth guns to the rescue, but it arrived too late, twenty minutes after the remnant of the body guard had been completely surrounded and taken prisoners., In spite of the fact of the enemy being only about thirty, yards distant, and in overwhelming force, some of our men would not obey the order to cease firing, and the,Boer General was heard to say that if they did not stop firing he would take no prisoners,' but shoot every man. When the guns arrived, they shelled the enemy most vigorously, and caused them to retreat, leaving many dead, seventeen bodies bavng been seen in one kraal. Many of the wounds received by the body guard were inflicted by MartiniHenry and expanding bullets. By ten o’clock at night the dead were buried, and the wounded sent to the Kroonsrad Hospital under the Red Cross flag, which the enemy disregarded, firing- on the sick convoy, and harassing it nearly all the way to Kroonstad, where the wounded now- are. From latest reports they are progressing as favourably as can be. expected. FIGHTING IN THE' TRANSVAAL. As a counter' blast- to this unfortunate but heroic affair, the British have inflicted a smashing defeat on the enemy's forces in the Magaliesburg range, north "of Pretoria. Here the Boer's attempted to capture a convoy that, was moving to join- -General Gordon, but the attack was easily beaten off. The same day the enemy in force, under General Beyers,, attacked General Gordon’s position, but had the tables turned "Apon them, and-were .attacked in turn, being put to flight and leaving twenty of their dead upon the field, besides taking ,awa|y several of the bodies with them. Our were practically nil. Two nights previously the Boers made determined attacks on our positions all along the line. At Belfast, Wonderfontein, Nooitgedacht and Pan, under cover of dense fogs, they were enabled to creep up close to our posi-. tions and heavy firing was kept up all through the night, -until daybreak the next morning. Then the Boers- sheered .off, leaving thirty dead upon the , field. Our less was by "no means slight, twenty killed and as many wounded. On the night of Jan. 12 the Boers again gave evidence of their proximity, to Pretoria by cutting wire between Irene and Olifant’s stations. A patrol of sixteen men of the Cheshire Mounted Infantry from Irene reached Kaalfontein, the third station from here at daybreak, when immediately the alarm was given that-the Boers were approaching. Their force, was estimated at 800 strong, supposed to be under Commandant Beyers. They-at once invested the station from, all sides and opened a. shell fire from two field pieces and a Maxim, and poured in a. hot. rifle fire. The mail train was at Olifantsfontein, and was just about to proceed, but a message was received just in time to the effect that the Boers .were there, and the train was saveddespite the strength of the attack. Private Park, of the Cheshire Mounted Infantry, pluckily ran the gauntlet of the Boers, got to- Olifantsfontein, and wired to Pretoria for reinforcements. The armoured train, with -a 15-pounder and a company of rifles, 'was despatched as soon as possible, and another train under captain Geddes followed in support. Meantime the Boers kept up a perpetual fire, shells falling about the station every minute or so for six hours, besides a- heavy rifle fire. Two shells passed through the station, and 1 one hurst in the orderlies’

office, completely wrecking it. - The on«j ~ hundred and twenty men garrisoning the |! station, under Lieutenant Freeman, assisted; ’ by the men of the patrol, gallantly held ) their own, and by noon had succeeded ini \ driving the enemy off without a single cas-L ( ualty, while the Boers left three wounded men on the field. They had a transport, ’ train half a mile long with.them, but ilo cays ' airy being available, they retired unmolestJ cd. The armoured train- came up too lata ■ to take part in the action, while-the sup-i ■ ports got no further than The Boers blew, up the line beyond Kaalfon-i tcin, and the mail train had toiput-ba-cls taj ;i Pretoria. The object of the Boeis was, -no doubt, to obtain supplies, of which therein a large quantity at Kaalfontein; • I • Simultaneously with the attack on- KaaK ; fontein, ,-thc Boers- attacked Zuurfonbein,:'•' the'station beyond. A party of them in khaki deceived the sentry and took him pri-t ’ sonev, and behaved in a similar manner wit-Si • ‘the Cossack outpost. The 'garrison, mg of a detachment of Lincolns, under Ifieti4 . tenant.Gordeaux. and.a detachment of Nor’J folks, , under Lieutenant Atkinson, se&ngt : that something was wrong, 1 opened fire. Thd Boer leader led bis men on with a rush to attack the trenches, and was * shot downl r within seven yards of . the men, when his men fled. The attack was continued ia other quarters, but gallantly repulsed, with ’• a loss on our side of quo corporal killed, and two men slightly wounded., Eight prisonera were taken by-the. Boers and released: The , Boer who was killed had- papers on him’ \ showing him to'be a member of .the; la-td ’ Free State Raad. Lieutenant'William Free-. : man (Cheshires), who so gallantly resisted ■ the attack upon .Kaalfontein, only took com-. • inand the night- before, owing to the. illness ■ of his captain. Owing to the abuse nf.tha khaki uniform, stringent .regulations res . garding the same trill be enforced.