TRANSVAAL WAR.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 718, 31 March 1900, Page 4

TRANSVAAL WAR.

- m ■ < RUSSIA BLOWS HOT AND COLD. MICHAEL DAVITT AT PRETORIA. ESCAPE OF BOER PRISONERS. ' ' London, March 28. The ' Daily News ' states that Lord Roberts shortly meets his wife at Capetown. Tha Capo police remain . south of the OranOe river owing to the racial susceptibility of the Free Staters. Kaffirs are digging trenches on the Johannesburg kopjes. . ' General Joubert is at Pretc ia. The Boers are massing in entrenched positions on the Bipgarsberg range. The waggons are packed at Newcastle in readiness to retreat. The "Transvaal Telegraph' states that 20,000 Free Staters under Commandant De Beers, of Harrismith, are guarding nine passes in the Drakensberg mountains. It is reported {bat th« enemy's big guns at Biggnrsberg have been removed. Reuter's agent states that a strong force of. Boers have reoccupied Ladybrand, from which it is inferred that their retreat in the direction of Krooustad has been intercepted. The Boer version of their various move-' ments is that Commandant Olivier's column has joined with that of the Groebeler and Lemmers commandos, and that the entire forces will junction with Commandant De Wet and oppose Lord Roberts at Winburg. General Cleinouts has occupied the towns of Jagersfontoin and Fauresmith, in tbe Free State. He entered and took possession unopposed, receiving a cordial welcome from the inhabitants. The General has appointed magistrates in both places. The ' Daily Chronicle ' states tbat 400 Free Staters threaten the railway near Jacobsdal (south of Kimberle.y). The Transvaal Boers have arrested Commandant Prinsloo, who had retired to his farm by President Kruger's permission. They are also looting the farms of the Free Staters, and attributing tho outrages to the British. Sir A. Milner has reached Bloemfontein. March 29. Commandant Groebeler, with GOOO men from Colesberg, is midway between Bloemfontein and Kroonstad. A grave at Dronfield was found to contain 73 cases of dynamite. General Clements found a nine-pounder Maxim in a well at Kofliefontein and three loads of ammunition in alleged graves. A strong column of the Imperial Yeomanry has been sent to Griquatown. The column will proceed later to Mafeking, co-operating j with Lord Methuen's Warrentou column. Two hundred rebels in the Prieska district have submitted. The others decamped. Mafeking was safe on Monday, 26th inst. Eight hundred rebels are entrenched at Upington. The Natal Boers report having destroyed the shafts and the machinery in the Dundee colliery, and declare that ihey intend to destroy all the others. The 'Telegraph' lowers the estimate of Boers in Natal to 10,000. Others declared that 2000 was the vanguard. Russia's reply to tbe Joint Note addressed by the two Presidents of the South African Republics to the Powers of Europe shows the greatest sympathy with the Boers, and expresses the utmost regret at Russia's inability to comply with their request for mediation. Russia explains that had the two Presidents applied to the Powers before telegraphing lo Lord Salisbury there was reason to believe that England could have been approached. Russia's reply, however, would have been the same in any case, as mediation would have been impossible after Lord Salisbury's categorical statement on the subject. The ' Times,' commenting upon Russia's reply to the Presidents, says that it is perhaps the unkindest yet sent, acidulating as it does, platonic sympathy with tho intimation that the republics had looked the wrong way, but that it would have made no difference even had tbey looked the right way. The paper adds that the Australian joint cablegram to Mr Chamberlain, supportthe previous message from New Zealand, has been a further blow to the enemy's sympathisers. Newspapers describe General Joubert as superior to his surroundings, and regret the absence of his influence in the coming settlement. President Kruger bas caused the British mines on the Rand to bo undermined. A similar course has been followed with British buildings at Johannesburg. Captain Mclnerney, of the Victorian Riiles, has recovered from tho wounds he received near Rensburg. Michael Davitt visited Mr'Rebz, Transvaal State Secretary, at Pretoria. A strong Boer force sharply but fruitlessly attacked the British at Warrenton, near Fourteen Streams, on Wednesday. The British shrapnel fire was magnificent. Capetown, March 20. Two Boer prisoners at Simonstown have succeeded in escaping. j The Transvaal has commandeered hatf-a-million sovereigns from five banks in Pretoria. Half of them were taken from the Standard Bank. Premier Sehreiner has unsuccessfully remonstrated against the deportation of Boer prisoners to St. Helena. DumsAN, March 28. Mr Michael Davitt has arrived at Delagoa Bay. Mr G. Pott, consul for the Transvaal at Lorenzo Marquez, bas beeu fin d 200 guineas for indirectly importing heliographs and other contraband goods for his Government. Lieut. Michael E. Lindsay, of the fiist New Zealand contingent, has received a commission in the 7th Dragoons. New Yohk, March 29. Kruger, in an interview with a ' New YorkWorld ' representative, said that tbere would be hundreds of thousands of victims before the war ended. He was confident it would prove victorious and that there would be a free and independent Transvaal.