LORD RANFURLY INTERVIENED.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIV, Issue 295, 16 December 1899, Page 3

LORD RANFURLY INTERVIENED.

A REABBURING TONE. PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE POSITION. Wellington, December 15. Interviewed by the Post, His Excellency Lord Banfurly said that everywhere he went m the Australian colonies he found an intense feeling of loyalty to the Mother land, and a growing feeling of imperialism, that was being fostered on all hands. His Ezceller.cy would not express any opinion m regard to the tactics m the Transvaal war, but m regard to tLe outcome of it he adopts a reassuring tone. He does not place the greatest relianoe on some of the cablegrams that oome to us from Capetown. In the initial stages of such an arduous and difficult campaign, he says, it is only to be expected that we must suffer occasional severe reverses, especially seeing that the enemy has an enormous advantage m position m an extremely difficult country. Though there has been considerable loss of life, he points out that there has .been nothing absolutely jeopardising our position, and he looks forward before long, when our troops have been reinforced and have overcome the present initial obstacles of the country, to seeing a very different state of things. No Englishman, he added, can have any doubt as to the final result. His Excellency expressed his dalight that the New Zealanders at the front had, according to the short telejjraphio acoount received, done so well m the first brush with the enemy. He felt confident that they, as well as our colonial troops, would prove worthy soldiers m any future operations they might be called upon to undertake.