FORD CAPTURES DE WET.

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13663, 4 September 1916, Page 4

FORD CAPTURES DE WET.

SOUTH AFRICAN REVOLT. SlT>ri['Kl) BV AIOTOR-(JARS. ' a rebellion against the British Empire was stamped out by Ihe. aid of motor cars forms the plot i'u one of (he la'tcst melodramas on the world's stage. It was enacted in Orange Free Slate. South Africa, during the .jveent \\ wr troubles, and caine to a climax when General Christian He Wei, the famous Boer leader and politician, was cap tared and brought back a prisoner in a Ford automobile. "While.there.wore 110,000 men in ihe field against the rebels, a force of a hundred ami lil'ty automobiles played Hie leading part, in rounding them up, and the rapid transit of the Imperial troops is what took the heart, out of the .insurrection in a hurry, Not only did the machines enable the-troops to surround the 'but it remained for one, a Ford touring car, to even capture the leader, De Wet, and to rcinqre him from the field of battle to the railway station at Yryburg, en route for Pretoria,'as a prisoner of war, De "Wet's own brother, Piet De Wet, was one of the many Boers who remained loyal to the 'Crown, and he gave information -which was of importance in the operations, The elderly Boer general was the most formidable leader in the Boer war of 18!)!), but after peace was' declared the Government entrusted to him the important post of .Minister of. Agriculture for Orange Free State. Aside from the, many motor cars commandeered and rented by the fJovernment forces, many more were offered gratuitously by Ford dealers and owntrs, Several cars were loaned by Messrs Arkell and .Douglas, Inc., general Ford dealers for South Africa, No harder work was ever attempted by pleasure cars, especially as most of the country over which they travelled was without roads. The cars covered over fourteen hundred miles in the first campaign in the rebellion, carrying extra heavy loads with 'the roughest possible treatment. . The wonderfuj way the Fords went through the entire campaign; proved their durability, It also redounds to the credit of the Ford that it should have been selected i'or so important a ■mission as' tht removal of the former Boer leader.— : .\fande Bros., sole agents for North Otago, Oamaru.