MAFEKING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11369, 11 May 1900, Page 5

MAFEKING.

BOER FLIGHT AT FOURTEEN STREAMS. London, May 9. The Boers at Fourteen Streams fled precipitately, abandoning everything, although their trenches are considered to be equal to those at Magerfontein.

CO-PARTNERS IN THE EMPIRE. London, May 9. At a dinner given at the Conservative Club by Mr. Goschen, First Lord of the Admiralty, the latter declared that their Australian kinsmen were co-partners in the Empire through ties formed on the battlefield. He stated that the colonial officers at the front bore brilliant testimony to this idea. , Mr. Goschen also referred to the energy and resourcefulness displayed by Commander Colquhoun, of the Victorian forces, at the front.

WOUNDED COLONIALS. London, May 9. The following colonials were wounded at Brandfort:— Seymour and Braithwaite, of Queensland ; L. E. Smith, of New Zealand; Campbell and Jones, of New South Wales. PUNISHMENT OF A DESERTER. London, May 9, A gunner who was sentenced to death for deserting to the Boers from the Natal force, and whom the Boers expelled from their ranks for insubordination, has had his sentence commuted by General Buller to imprisonment for life. DUTCH SYMPATHY. ; /;r. -"■ v . London, May 9. ; The Dutch colonial friends of the Boer prisoners have subscribed £9000 to provide comforts for-them. •-'>--'< •■

ST. HELENA, . , . London* May 9. Great Britain has decided 'to send no more prisoners to St. Helena. ;. THE AUSTRALIAN BUSHMEN, London, May. 0. The Bushmen's horses travelled from Beira to Rhodesia, being spe- . cially protected in the region where the tsetse fly abounds. THE MAORI, ■;. London, May 9. The steamer Maori, with part of; the Fifth New Zealand Contingent, has arrived at Beira. » NEW ZEALAND TROOPER WOUNDED. As regards the High Commissioner's cable, reporting that Private L. E. Smith, of the New Zealand Mounted Infantry, was wounded on May 5, a Wellington telegram states thatT. E. Smith, of No. 2 Contingent, was wounded on May 5. • ✓ - —~»■ THE TROPEA. v ■■■: [DV telegram.— correspondent.]- - Wellington, Thursday. ' This vessel sails to-morrow. There .ara about 20 young men on the ship's articles. One is Mr. R. Withcford, a son of Mr. J, H. Withcford, M.H.R., of Auckland. •• REMOUNTS. [by telegraph.—press ASSOCIATION'.] Wellington, Thursday. ' In reply to his inquiries as to which porti the steamers carrying remounts should call, Lord Roberts : wires from the Zand River Camp, as follows: — "Welgelegen, March 9. Steamers' with remounts should call at East London." OATS FOR SOUTH AFRICA. [BT TELEGBArH.— ASSOOIATION.J Timaiiu, Thursday. The steamer Fernfield left direct for .Dun ban this evening, with a full cargo of oats.

THE MARCH ON KIMBERLEY. HOW, GENERAL FRENCH AVERTED A' DISASTER. Tbo following extracts from the letters o? a cavalry officer givo an account of General French's dash for Kimberloy from tho Moddcr River;— Wo formed up tho division at three a.m., and marched out of Modder River Camp a soon a? it was light enough, or rathor before,' as we went groping about in the uarkness fori a mile or two, and then halted till sunrise, Tho previous ovening Lord . Roberts . rodo round the various cavalry camps. ' After-; wards he saw all commanding officers, etc., and mado a speech. Said wo were about tec! start on an expedition which he knew' vo should rojoico at as an opportunity of mains' taining the traditions of British cavalry that wo formed tho largest British Cavalry Division that had ever been worked together as one division, that our object was tho''relief, of Kimberley, and that it must be done, and?! that quickly, becauso tho information he had from Kimberley was that the Boers had' brought up another big gun and shelled (her garrison, ' KILLING WOMEN AND CHILDREN. That things tboro were now desperato, and we' must mako a dash for it, and that he would' follow us as best ho could in support with, tho rest of the army. Lord Kitchener had' also been to our camp in tho morning, and said that wo were to relievo Kimborley, even; if it cost us half our force; that if wo wore' able to move after this we might bo allowed to mako a dash for Bloemfontein. So all this rather altered our original idea, which was: that wo wero to be allowed to make straight lor Bloemfontein' thus cutting Boer communications and generally demoralising; them, while the rest of the army worked round quietly to Kimberley. Our first march, was to Ramdan, about 22 miles south, end a. little oast of Modder River. Ramdan is only a farmhouse on tho veldt, with a largo waterman and one good well. Wo arrived without; opposition or news of the enemy, and the General took up quarters in the farmhouse,, which had beon hastily evacuated, and almost? everything taken away. Next morning,-, Monday, February 12, we marched at fourFormed up in the dark and waited for dawn, and then proceeded almost duo east for tha> Roit River, which we were to cross some-, where, and hold both banks and secure them) for tho infantry. About eight a.m. we found somo of the enemy on our left front, and flank. At first wo thought it was only a small patrol, but they soon opened fire on us* with two guns. Tho General brought round. Broadwood's Brigade to secure our right and hold some kopjes on what would then become, tho right of our position. The ground was' in places very steep and rocky, VERY TRYING FOR HORSES. . One shell fell just in front Of my line, and another burst by General French, in the rniddlo of his staff, but hurt no one. ThaiGeneral Boon decided to push on for that river, and brought round his left, which vaa'i Gordon's Brigade. The Boers retired, butt' showed in somo force on our left, and were* evidently prepared to defend a particular drift they presumably thought or hoped we were* making for. The General decided to feint for this drift with Gordon's Brigade, and dash' for tho river further to our right, and chance being ablo to cross it by fording or swimming and holding opposite bank till the pontoons could come up. Wo waited about) what wo thought was two miles short of the river to let Gordon dovelop his attack, the General moving slowly on while the rest remained halted. After a bit ho sent back for tho 3rd Brigade to advance at tho gallop,, and ho and an engineer officer, Hunter Weston, who was in charge of the pontoons, and somo of the staff loci the way,to the river. Wo could see where it was by a thin green* lino of bushes. We wero all awfully excited at this, and wo dashed on to tho bank as hard as wo could go, expecting the Boera to fire on us at any moment. Luckily they, weren't thero, and when we got to tho water a' edgo tho first man who entered to try the ford got his horse bogged in tho sand. _ Howevor, the point was to secure a position for our crossing, Thero wore two kopjes on our, sido of tho bank about half a mile apart.The Genoral got some squadrons on to these as quickly as possible, and having discovered' a track which led to a house further to outright tip tho rivor—it seemed certain that: it must lead to a ford—he pressed on in tho direction ' of the track, which did lead to * ford bv which the mounted infantry crossodj By this time wo were under fire. In faotf we had won tho river by fivo minutes only,? and that only by galloping—a remarkable instance of tho value of cavalry. Thus p?" o™';0™'; French had secured the river by a : feint to J his left with one brigade, and then by gal", ; loping had v ' "j-;-'• '-:•:: * -, WON THE FORD. *'It was done with next to no loss. Poo* Majondie, of the Rifle Brigado, attached to Roberts' Horse, badly wounded/ died during tho night, and two r or.three ether- meal

'■ wounded were, I believe, the only casualties. ' I Had we been five- minutes later, and had they come up to the river before us, our losses % would- have been very t heavy. took up '•'-our-headquarters in the farm about half a mile from the' ford~a rather nicely-furnished % house whif:h the (unfortunate • owners '■■, had fled from in tho greatest hurry; our people * who" first got' in ?atd they, found coffee hot and ready to drink. There was,no water except the -river, and it was a, very, steep, '■■ Comfortable' climb to get to it down the ' STnts ' But our thirst wag awful, and - iSd-to say what I drank, muddy Wo had little food thatnight %S «n#Tuesday #3tb, we. were up a SreXand » message had come m .that * SSchener was following us. and wou d come in directly, and we were going to.wait. f After his arrival we found ■''-,- LORD ROBERTS. . which we meant to stnko about Klip unit '■ The march was most trying, About 100 S that day. About WJjM ho we knew we were near to the river, as we Tuld see the usual belt of green indicating Sow bushes and trees on the banks abou * five miles on. The General hurried on, red JvSard it .we there were signs o a Boer laager on tho opposite bank. J here was much clamour for the guns and complaint that they were so far behind But, M a matter of fact, wo had come too fast for tlic artillery, and the horses were dead beat. When they arrived, the guns opened on tho laager, and the 12th'Lancers made a very srood advance, but there *as next to no opposition.- The Boers were completely surprised, and all bolted. We DASHED ACROSS THE RIVER,

poured the fords and their three laagers on 'the other side, and tho contents, including a considerable amount of ammunition a few rifles, a considerable number of cattle and sheep, and, above all, cut one of their lines of communication from Bloemfontein Some of the staff settled at a farmhouse, which 1 Tceret to say had been somewhat ruthlessly 'looted by a regiment of which better things might havo been expected. There was a good well of water here, which was delicious, and "wo watered the horses in the river. I rlept well again in the open, and we had better food than the night before Our march next morning was to be delayed till more of tho infantry could come in- and relieve our outposts.', Tho General, Lord Kitchener, and Kelly-Kenny went round tho positions early; then back to breakfast, and tho Brigadiors were told whore to form up, and to como as quickly as possible after us, when they were relieved. It was, of course, inevitable that we should bo delayed, but it was most annoying. We had to get to Kimberley that night. .- We should have to fight at tho end of the march; every hour of daylight was of utmost importance, and if we did not get into Kimberley we did not know whero wo were going to get water.' At last we started about nine. We bad about 24 miles to do. We knew from spies and prisoners that the enemy expected we were going to march for Bloemfontein: We pointed at first as though we wore going in that direction, so as to Deceive the enemy. After a few miles a gun opened on us on our left. A battery was at once brought up into position to reply. The enemy's fire was singularly accurate; the front shells fell rather near the General and his staff. . But when our battery opened the enemy directed their fire on it. An officer was killed, and about 12 men wounded. While this was going on the head of our 'column discovered the enomy posted on a line of koppes immediately in our front and , running along to our left front. It was obvious, therelore, that our front and left front was held by the enemy, also our hit roar. Between lay an open space at right angles on our left, about a milo or mile and / a-half broad, rising gently away from us. The moment was ono I can never forgot. There was a pause, during which wo lookod at each other.- I watched tho General, wondering what he'would, do. ' It would have been simple onough to manoeuvre and fight had we nothing to do but to fight the enemy in front of us. But we had to get to Kimberley that night or fail. ' Suddenly tho General decided to

-MAKE A DASH, and he pointed to the rising ground on the left. Ho sent for the Brigadiers, ordered three batteries up to play on the enemy, and the 16th Lancers and 9th Lancers to make a dash at once, and trust to the ridge at the . top of the plain not being strongly held. As the 9th and 16th advanced a terrific fire opened on them, and as thoy disappeared into , tho dust ono wondered how they could have fared. As the dust cleared the General decided rto;ride for it himself, and ordered everything to follow. Wo sat down and rode all we knew, expecting the same fire on us. , To our. great surprise not a shot was fired. The moral effect of the cavalry charge across their front, and the fear that wo should work round their flank had been too much for the Boers, and they had bolted. Still more remarkable was the little loss they had inflicted ' —a few dead horses and somo wounded, not a singlo dead man—about five wounded was all I saw on the plain. The whole thing was v a marvellous example of what cavalry dash can do. The ridge at the end had been held by a very few Boers—so or 60, our people thought. But they did not ■■ wait; one man only was caught up and killed. We got to a ridge overlooking a great plain, :uid Kimberley was visible in front of us, about 12 miles off. We could hear occasional booms of pins, and could seo the puffs of the i bursting shells. ( Broadwood's Brigade was sent to the left to demonstrate and draw tho attention of the enemy to an attack coining from the south. There was a small kopje to our right. Tho General halted the rest of the division, and climbed the kopje to survey the situation, and try and get into •* heliograph communication with Kimberley. For a long time we flashed, but no reply. We became very impatient. At last we could see them flash. We told them who we were, and asked which way they wished us to attack. For what seemed ages no answer. Then they asked what our forco was, and a whole lot of rot, which made us furious, wasting timo. . At last it dawned on us, THEY THOUGHT "WE WERE BOERS pulling their logs, and so it turned out. At last we came to an understanding, and they replied we were advancing on the best line, and oil! wo.went. To make a long story short, we met practically with no opposition. The enemy had got wind of us, and had bolted ; from all their positions on tho south-east and • east, with the exception of one position on the cast, from which they shelled our right brigade with one gun. Colonel Porter got his guns into position to reply. My horse was now so beat I could only move at the f walk as we entered tho Boer position. The enemy had cleared after firing a few shells, and had taken their gun with them, Pursuit, ' unfortunately, was out of the question. Tho horses were dead boat and without water. Everything in the Boer laager had been left in confusion and hurry, and apparently no / attempt, been made to clear its contents, , ■■ touts and cooking-pots being left behind. Arrangements were made for watering, and the positions, the . troops were to bivouac on for the' night, and then tho General, with a detachment, started to ride into Kimberley, still seven miles off, It all seemed strange, and so simple. ' A few hours before, as we first camo in sight, we could see and hear the smoko and boom of the guns, the siege still in ' .progress... Now all was quiet. Tho east and south-east was quite cleared of tho enemy. •' 'They had simply made a bolt for it as wo approached. Without ever getting within riflo phot, and without the loss of a single man, so far as the ii.. mediate vicinity of Kimberley was concerned, wo had simply driven the enemy' away. But it should never be forgotten that what decided the fate of the day was the Genoral's masterly decision in the early morning to cut his way through what then seemed might be an almost surrounding of us by the enemy, and instead of losing timo , by waiting to fight them, to leave them and risk thoir being on our flanks and roar for tho rest of the day. They had their chance, and a real good one, hut they failed to take it.

SIR GEORGE WHITE EXPLAINS HIS POSITION AT LADYSMITII. BRILLIANT SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE ■;.;.' OF CAPETOWN. A great town's meeting was held in the / Good Hope Hill at Capetown on March 27, towitness the presentation of a congratulatory address by the Mayor to General Sir George White in appreciation of his conspicuous gallantry in the memorable defence of Ladysmith. Seldom has such an enthusiastic scene '• been witnessed within the precincts of the building,, which was crowded to excess by a large and fashionable assemblage. The Mayor having presented the address, Sir George White rose and mot with a /characteristically hearty reception. At the outset of » remarkably eloquent speech lie thanked the citizens on bis own behalf, and as the roprosenative of tho gallant garrison of Ladysmith. From the very beginning : be had taken a very seriouF view of tho Natal .'situation, owing to the superior strength of the Boer forces, their groat mobility, and strong geographical positions. 'He proceeded to explain tho reasons why ho allowed the late General Sir W. Ponn Symons :'. to strike the first"-blow at the advancing ■ enemy. -V. The Boers then had overweening confidence, : ongendercd by having been sue- .-; cessful in' some 'small.engagements, like Ma- :■ juba, aided, as they- were, by a combination

of fortuitous circumstances, This confidence, however,' was very soon shattered by the brilliant victories of. General Synions,' and those of Goneral French at Talana Hill and Elands Laagto. V These engagements had shown the Boers ' that the British soldiers could . push them from the strongest positions at the point of ; the bayonet, , despite thoir superior, num-bers.,..'-',!-.'.v;-■';''■■.•!;-, u -'-:/.."•'- '""■':-■ ■' y '; ; '\ r ;.. ' War, however, General White pointed out, was a game of ups and downs.' He had decided on one effort to absolutely defeat the Boers at Lombard's Kop, and he was only about to put it into execution when tho unfortunate disaster at Nicholson's Nek occurred. Nicholson's Nek, he explained, was the only outlet through which his cavalry could go to conclude the task of the infantry. Everything depended upon the holding of that position. The plan failed, and he alone took the responsibility. Ho had afterwards docidod to hold Ladysmith as a shield to protect the Colony, confident as he was that the " Great Sleepy Giant, John Bull," who they, know was behind them, would ultimately awaken, stretch out his arms, and rescue them. Having warmly acknowledged the help of the Naval Brigade, Sir Georgo White referred at some length to the defeat of the Boers on January 6, and specially eulogised the services rendered by Colonel lan Hamilton. As an instance of the bravery of the troops on that historic occasion, he said that 16 soldiors of the Manchester Regiment held a position on that day, without any officors to guide and direct them, from threo o'clock in the morning until nightfall. When the rollcall was taken aftei the enemy had been completely beaten back, 14 of those brave men were found to have been killed, anothor was wounded, and only one escaped unscathed. Sir George gave, as another instance, the gallantry of Sergeant Hope, of the Royal Artillery. As his battery was going into action he was struck by a shell, which carried away hi„ arm and As his helpless and almost lifeless body foil across the trail of the gun he urged his comrades to do their duty,, and shouted to them. "Throw mo out of the way, boys. Go on working tho gun." ■ Sir George declared that General Joubort was a soldier and a gentleman, and a brave and honourablo opponent. The Imperial Light Horse recruited in tho colony was tho finest fighting material that ho had ever had under his command during his 50 years' experience as a soldiei of the Queen. Sir George concluded a most interesting speech by expressing his thanks to the civil community of Ladysmith, who were as anxious as the military to hold up tho grand old flag of England. ' A Router's spepial telegram reports the conclusion of Sir George's speech as follows: "Amidst the general praise there must bo some blame. Ono old lady behaved most shabbily. I had protected her all the timo of the siege, but no sooner was she under the protection of General Buller than she gave me a very hot time, never allowing my temperature to get under 103. I refor to 'Lady Smith.' "England, that little dot on the map, always comes out best in the end. That little England, the heart of the whole Empiro, so brave and strong, sent her life-blood into the furthest corner of the Empire, and appears before tho world an unconquerable whole. The dark hours are past. I glory in being a lieutenant of Lord Roberts, who is England's greatest soldier, and possesses the hearts of the wholo nation." Tho proceedings concluded with a great ovation to Sir George White and Lord Roberts, and tho singing of the National Anthem, including two special verses written by tho Dean of Capetown. "THE BEST BEHAVED ARMY IN THE WORLD." Bloekfontein, April 4. At a meeting of the Army Temperance Association on Monday Lord Roberts pointed out to tho soldiers tho advantages of joining it. Every member was known to the commanding officer, and for important posts men were often chosen, because of their membership. The soldier hearers dwolt on every word that fell from tho lips of the man they loved. When he spoko of "the- army I now have the great honour of commanding," Lord Roberts betrayed a depth of feeling in his voice.

He was proud to bo the leader of "the best-behaved army in the world." They had fought splendidly, marched uncomplainingly, and endured all the hardships of the campaign. How well they had fought ! The Field-Marshal added, half jocularly, "The whole army have been members of the Association. Modder water was all they had to drink, and sometimes little of that."

PRETORIA-CITY OF ROSES. Pretoria is about 37 miles from Johannesburg, in an upland valley, surrounded by the Witwatersberg hills, about 4500 ft above tho level of the sea. Tho town nestles among hedges of roses, which grow everywhere in wild profusion. Lines of willow treos and blue pins border tho hedges, and streams of clear water flow down tho sides of the broad streets, which are laid out in straight lines. There is quite a Continental air. about Pretoria. The place is lighted with a fine installation of arc lamps, which, at night-time, as thev shine through tho foliage, irresistibly suggest the boulevards of Paris or Brussels. Some of the buildings at Pretoria are truly palatial. First among them comes the "Raadzaal," or Government buildings. They have a frontage of 175 ft wide, a depth of 220 ft, and a height of 125 ft from the ground up to the winged figure of Liberty which surmounts the principal dome. Altogether, Pretoria will not fail to delight Tommy Atkins when he has at last fought his way to that delectablo place. It will be a welcome change from the voldt.