THE FUTURE OF THE REPUBLICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11371, 14 May 1900, Page 5

THE FUTURE OF THE REPUBLICS.

STATEMENT BY MR. CHAMBERLAIN. London, May 12. Mr. Chamberlain, speaking at Birmingham, said the Republics would be administered like the Crown colonies or Indian native dependencies, and whenever it was considered safe they would be introduced within the circle of self-governing colonies. The loyalists, he asserted, would not find themselves in a worse position than those who looted their houses and defiled their homes. THE MINES. Pretoria, May 11, The Volksraad, by 12 to 9, has rejected President Kruger's proposal to sell the underground mining rights below the machinery of the companies on the Witwatersrand for £1200 per chain. His intention was in favour of German firms who maintain,representatives in the Transvaal. RELEASED. London, May 11. Mr. Gertbaim, a Government horse contractor at Capetown, who was arrested for concealing three escaped Boer prisoners, has been released. PRISONERS FOR CEYLON. Calcutta, May 12. Preparations are being made at Dijitalwa, in Ceylon, for the reception of 6000 Boer prisoners. NEW SOUTH WALES AND ITS CONTINGENTS. Sydney, May 12. A Pensions Board Las been appointed to deal with the claims of families of soldiers killed or wounded in the Transvaal war. A NEW ZEALANDER ILL. [by telegraph.—press association.] Wellington, Saturday. The Government have received information that Trooper A. C. Hadfield, of the Second Contingent, son of the ex-Primate of New Zealand, is dangerously ill at Capetown of enteric fever. NEW ZEALAND PRISONERS AT PRETORIA. [l)Y telegraph.—press association.] . . Wellington, Saturday. The Premier has received an advice from the United States Consul at Pretoria to the effect that the New Zealanders,' who • are there as prisoners, are all. in good health and provided for comfortably* { \t

THE FRENCH ON THE BEIRA

EXPEDITION.

- LETTERS TO TROOPERS.'' " , !_■..[BT XEtEQRAPH.-rBES3 ASSOCIATION.] ">' ■ '■' mV •A \ , „ WEtUNoioN, Saturday. '•■ ,* * lostal Department here has been ad-', vised, m connection with' mails for those on' 1 active service in South Africa, as follows : — I An army base office" has been established in Capetown, and serves as the office of ex- ' change between the civil and' military post ' oflices, and centres at which largo bodies of .. troops arc located. - Field post offices have also been opened at points along the line of communication at advanced depots, and with each brigade and division .in' the field, and' mails are exchanged between tho " base office " and field offices, by' the ordinary means of communication provided by tho civil administration as opportunity offers. When the force is located at; a distance from any civil post offico the exchange of mails is maintained between the camp and the nearest civil office, by means of the transport vehicles utilised for main*. l tabling supplies.

Tho Paris correspondent of the Newt York Herald, writing on April 7, says :—< Tho Anglo-Portugueso relations, and parti* cularly the unwelcomo friendliness of the Lisbon Government toward that of London, absorb tho attention of Europe more and more every day. It is believed in some quarters that the Beira incident has brought the matter to an acute stage. L'Evcnement calls the action a formal ret nunciation of neutrality and a crime. Inasmuch as Portugal owes French citizens "hundreds of millions," it holds that France ought to force Portugal to observe. neu« trality. Meanwhile the news that the steamship Galeka has just left Southampton with more than one thousand men for Beira adds fuel to tho flame, but those Frenchmen who aro best acquainted with foreign affairs take- a much calmer view.

M. Valfroy, in the Figaro, gives it as his opinion that the concession is mado to appease the anger of England over tho award of the Berne arbitration tribunal in the Delagoa railway case, and does not believe that any European Cabinet will mako trouble for Portugal or intervene. "The Boers,' ho says, "havo only ono string to their bow— get their cause mixed up with tho Presidential election in tho, United States.'

AN AMERICAN VISITOR ON, THE ' TRANSVAAL. i Mr. Webster Davis, lately Assistant Sewj retary in the United States Government, 1 has visited the Transvaal,'and has narrated

his experiences to a reporter at Washington, He says:—<

"I viewed the defences of. Pre-1 toria, and I consider them impregnable. I. do not, believe the English troops will ever; pass the line of hills surrounding the town J bristling as they are with high power Krupp, and Creusot guns. "Thero seems a very general impression' that the' guns used by the Boers in the field were taken from the fortresses at Pretoria, but I saw every earthwork and fort surrounding tho town, and I could not see where! any guns had been removed. They wero all there, and formidable they looked. | " When I describe the city as impregnable,;! I speak from the judgment of a man of com-!, mon sense. Pretoria lies in a basin surrounded by a ridge of nigged hills, affording most admirable opportunities for defence. While there I learned enough to know that tho city is one vast storehouse of foodstuffs and ammunition.

" What impressed me most was the natural bigness of that grand old man, Kruger. I consider him as possessed of more of the elements of greatness than any man I ever' met. At 75 ho is as full of vigour as tho average man who owns up to 20 years less. His versatility impressed me deeply. "I have it on unimpeachable authority that the battle of Colenso, where Buller was crushed by the Boers, was planned entirely by this old man. Jouberfc carried out Kruger's instructions to the letter, and won that signal victory by the directions of «B old man away up there in Pretoria. " I was present at the battle of Spionkop and saw a thin line of Boers drive an army before them. After the fight I walked over the field and counted the dead bodies of 125 Englishmen in one trench, where the Boers had placed them for burial. During my stay in the neighbourhood I visited every laager in the lines surrounding the city, and talked with scores of officers and men.

"I visited the lines along the Tugolo, where Duller and his 40,000 men were held at bay, and I speak from the most positive knowledge when I say that all the Boer troops in that region numbered but 7000. With this force Joubort and Botha held Buller back and kept White and his 15,000 men corralled in the town.

"When Cronje was threatened in the west,3000 men were sent to him from Ladysmith,, leaving about 4000 to face the 55,000 men of the enemy. "At the battle of the Little Tugela, when: Buller was again driven back upon Chieveley, I saw General Louis Botha in action, and I consider him the greatest of the Dutch commanders. When the fighting began Botha was sauntering along behind the lino of trenches watching his men taking careful shots at the advance of the British force.

" For half-an-hour after we could first dc«, tect the movement there was not much ex-! citement, but all at once there was a rush of cavalry and artillery, and the doublequick of infantry in open order. The bullets began to patter around us, and two burghers were hit close beside Botha. He seemed tor awake instantly, and sprang down into tho trench, exclaiming, " Shoot! Shoot I" in Dutch. As the word was carried along tho lines he caught up a rifle from the hands of' a dead burgher and began making quick but;] careful shots at the foe.

" Five minutes and it was over, as quickly as the rush had begun. From the Boer side it was like the Kipling descriptions— fight _ with the fuzzy wuzzies in the desert. ! "As I said before, I do not believe tho British will ever enter Pretoria. Even tha women of the town are supplied with rifles and are daily practising in marksmanship. Some of them are very expert, and their average shooting is good. The strength of Kruger and his burghers lies in tho belief that God is with them."

BRITISH WITHOUT SENTINELS. , A remarkable statement, which, if true, reflects most severely upon the intelligence and capability of the British officers, is contained in a report from General De Wet to Pretoria regarding his attack on General Broadwood's- column at Koornspruit. Her says that the Boers found the British camp, slumbering peacefully, without a sentinel or outpost to give the alarm. This, be it remembered, was on the night following a day's hasty retreating, during which several rearguard actions were fought.

SERGEANT CAMPBELL. Sergeant Patrick Campbell, the husband of the well-known and popular actress, waa among the killed in the fight at Boshof, The War Office has issued the list of casualties of the killed and wounded non-com-missioned officers and men in the action on Thursday. Nino were wounded and onlv one killed. That one killed was Sergeant Patrick Campbell, the news just reaching London when the curtain was falling at the Royalty Theatre, where the talented actress is now drawing-oil the town by her grand performance of" Magda."

FRENCH'S WORN.OUT ANIMALS. The hard work which General French's brilliant movements entail upon his cavalry is eloquently evidenced by this account in the Daily Telegraph from the camp at Stellenbosch:—There is a section of our, camp devoted to the attenuates from up-countiy< These are the worn-outs and starvelings from Modder River, and from General French's force, and a ghastly crew they are -the Horses (chiefly, alas! English) in one kraal, mules in another, to the number of 200 to 300 each. • The mules, in then* tangled woolly coats, look the worse, conn parable to nothing but badly stuffed ( specu mens that have been moth-eaten. ,Uf then? - recuperative power in such straits, 1 can* ■. for want of previous experience, give no reliable opinion. : But for the .horses, poor. beasts; mv heart often bleeds. >, A,certain-; lew succumbed: early, -■ but the > rest, >; I arm. bound to admit, have deyelojjed already;

11 I """"■ '■■' certain amount of renewed vitality. '.When brought down • to water twice a day they . . raise a njcakly trot, or, in some : cases, j a gobbling canter.'-:,: ; -^;::y-." ; '^-• •'•■:';. ;, : - ■■')■;■ •A, more woful procession; of skeletons, -■ ■'• ■ however',- it. would be impossible to paint V ' ; each rib visible at 200 yds away, and each •'..'■ great, gaunt head wagging, as if to balance : ---\ • '•. the bagof bones that follows it. With six ■ '■•'■• ' months on grass they might become workable horses once more, but the new grass is still ? fully two months .away. Meantime, they ;;;. |V are costing our "Government much valuable \ forage, and in the course of things—as we hope and believe they will now turn out- • are never likely to be of any further vise in Jke present war.

DR. MOFPATT ON THE TRANSVAAL.

" The Methodist Times publishes a letter Written by the late Dr. Moffatt to Mr. Mc Arthur, M.P., at the time when the Transvaal was dechred British territory in 1877. Dr. Moffatt said "I have no words to express the pleasure the late annexation of the Transvaal territory to the Cape Colony has afforded me. It is one of the most import&nt measures our Government could have adopted as regards the Republic as well as the aborigines. I have no hesitation in pronouncing the step being fraught with incalculable benefits to both parties, i.e., the iPltlers-and the native tribes. A residence of more than half a century beyond the colonial -boundary is quite sufficient to authorise one to write with confidence that lord Carnarvon's measure will be the commencement, of an era of blessing to Southern Africa. ' I was ono of a deputation appointed by a committee to wait on Sir George Gierke, at Bloemfontein, to prevent, if possible, his handing over the sovereignty, now th Free State, to the emigrant Boers. Every effort failed to prevent the blunder. Long experience had led many to foresee that such a course would entail on the tribes continuous oppression, slavery alias apprenticeship, etc., etc. Many a tale of woe could be told arising, as they express it, from the English allowing their subjects to spoil and exterminate. Hitherto (he natives have been the sufferers, and might justly lay claim to compensation."

A METHODIST BISHOP ON THH

BOERS.

Bishop Hartzell, the Metropolitan of the 'American's Methodist Episcopal Missions in Africa, when interviewed on the subject of the war, said:—"The Boers themselves in South Africa will have a greater future of commercial, intellectual, and moral growth under the dominance of English civilisation, than they could possibly have in a continued attempt fo maintain separate Governments, and in their bungling way administer law on the basis of preference instead of principle, and be constantly involved in contentions with Uitlanders within, and the advancing development of more modern civilisation among both Europeans and natives about them. The white people of the Southern .States, who fought so bravely in the Civil War of 1861-5, now rejoice that they were overwhelmed with defeat, and delivered from the narrow and hurtful civilisation of shivery. So I believe if England will carry this war to unconditional surrender on the part of the Boers, and then firmly but wisely adjust the administration of law for the benefit (If all alike in South "Africa, the Briton and Boer will unite upon r basis of mutual respect, which the heroic fighting upon both sides has recently largely promoted, and together grow to be a great people fulfilling a high destiny for themselves, arid, under Divine leadership, redeem the increasing millions of natives about them."

COLONEL BADEN-POWELL ON SLEEP

What Colonel Baden-Powell has to say on sleep in his" Aids to Scouting"is of interest. "Sleep," he remarks, " whenever you can get the chance in safety, because there is no work that is more trying than the continual alertness required in scouting. But when you sleep tye careful not be to caught napping. I believe it to be a matter of practice that a man can not only wake himself at any hour he may wish.to, but also that he can sleep so lightly as to be awakened by the slightest sound or by the movement of anyone near him. It is a habit with me; as is also that of taking ten minutes' sleep here and there, and waking up as refreshed as if- ( I had had a couple of hours' rest.'-'' Whenever the gallant defender of Mafeking may sleep, he has certainly shown himself dming tho past few months thoroughly wide awake.

_. ' STILL ALIVE. Mr. Howard Bridgewater, of Ferriers, near / High Wycombe, England, is attached to Bethune's Horse. • Some time since his parents received the intelligence that their son had been cut off by a party of Boers while out skirmishing, and that he had been killed." The grief of the family was great, and mourning was worn. A few days ago a letter was received from young Bridgewater describing how he was taken prisoner. He says: — I was acting as orderly to the lieutenant, and got caught owing to carrying a message (to retire one by one)' to half-a-dozen of our fellows, who were in a kraal under a very hot cross fire. It was a marvel we were not all shot. ... I got within 50yds of a fence when about a dozen Boers suddenly rode up, end shouted, 'Hands up.' Some had already dismounted, and drawn a bead on ine, so I threw my rifle away, and rede up to them. Have no anxiety about me. for we are not treated by any means badly, and get plenty of food. Our lieutenant (Lieutenant Coke) got away only just in time—about a minuto before I was captured."

A GRAPHIC PICTURE OF THE BATTLEFIELD.

Richard Harding Davis, the correspondsnt of the New York Herald, gives the following respecting an advance of the British troops:— /

An army in the field living under bushes and sleeping in the open as this one is is a most marvellous and complicated spectacle. Anyone who has seen Epsom Downs on a Derby day, with its thousands of vans and tents and lines of horses and moving mobs, can get some idea of what it is like. But while at the Derby all is interest and excitement, and everyone is pushing and struggling, and the very air is palpitating with tho intoxication of a great event, the winning of a horse race—here, where men are killed every hour and no man knows when lis turn may come, the fact that most impresses you is their indifference to it all. What strikes you most is the bored air of the Tommies, the undivided interest of the engineers in the construction of their pentoon bridge, the solicitude of the -ueJical stall over the long lines of wounded, the rage of tho-naked Kaffirs at their lumbering steers; everyone is intent on something but the battle. b

, They are wearied with battles. The Tommies stretch themselves in the sua to <liy the wet khaki in which they have lam out in the cold night for weeks and yawn at battles. Or, if you climb to the lull where the general'staff is seated, yon will still find men steeped in boredom. They are burned a dark brown, their brown moustaches look white by contrast; theirs are the same faces you have met with in Piccadilly, that you see across the tables of the Savoy restaurant, that .gaze depressedly from the windows of White's and the Bachelors'. If they were bored then, they are unbearably bored now. Below them the mon of their regiment lie crouched amid the boulders, hardly distinguishable from the brown and yellow rock. , They are sleeping or dozing or yawning. / A shell passes over them like the shaking of many telegraph wires, and neither officer nor Tommy raises his head to watch it strike. They are tired in body and in mind, with cramped limbs and aching eyes. They have had 12 nights and 12 days of tattle, and it has lost its power to amuse. There is no holding back, there is no indifference. When the sergeants call the companies together they are eager enough then. Anything is better than lying still looking up at tho sunny, inscrutable hills or down into the plain crawling with black oxen.

Among the group of staff officers some one has .lost a cigar-holder. It has slipped from \ between his fingers, /aid, with the vindictiyeness' of inanimate things, has slid end|jumped under a pile of. rocks. The interest of ..all around is instantly centred on the lost cigar-holder. The Tommies begin to roll .the rocks ; away, ■ threatening to destroy the regiment below them, and half the kopje is obliterated. -•; They are as keen as terriers' after . a rat. The officers sit above' and give advice ! and disagree as to where 5 that ; cigar-holder, hid ; itself.. ■• , Over ■':'-' ■'.'.'■;' '■''!•'■•'.<;■#- i V.".''.-.- •'.' i : ' ; o' , i'...' '■■'>"■■ ; ;'v..'.'.'-: •■:,-■' ■ ■

their heads the shells chase each other not 20ffc above. : : But the officers are ' used' to shells; a search for a lost cigar-holder, which is going on under their very eyes, is of greater interest.'; And when at last a Tommy pounces upon it with a laugh of triumph, the officers■ look their, disappointment and pick up their field glasses with a sigh of resignation. : This is a true incident, reported as it occurred. ..•' ' It is all a question of familiarity. On Broadway, if a building is going up where there is a chance of a loose brick falling on someone's head, the contractor puts up red signs marked "Danger!" and you dodge over to the other side. But if you had been in battle for 12 days, as have the soldiers of Buller's column, passing shells would interest you no more than do. passing cable cars. After 12 days you would forget that shells are dangerous, that they can kill and mangle,' and you would become greatly excited over the recovery of a lost piece of amber.

THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN. COLONIALS TO~~THE ' FORE. Mr. A. B. Patterson, the Sydney Morning Herald's correspondent with Lord Roberts, writes:— Bloemfontein, April 5. The Australians are gradually making a second Sydney or Melbourne in the town of Bloemfontein. To go into the Bloemfon tein Club, ono might imagine himself at Scott's Hotel, so full is it of Australian faces. The streets swarm with long-legged young fellows, brown and hard-faced, and all with the alert, wide-awake look that distinguishes the Australian soldier from the more stolid English " Tommy." South of Bloemfontein are the New Zealanders, to the cast are the Qaeenslandcrs and the New South Wales Lancers, and the Australian Horse, while just about a couple of miles north of the town, snugly hidden away under the shelter of a big kopje, is the camp.of the Victorians, West Australians, South Australians, Tasmanians, and New South Wales Mounted Infantry. Behind them is a big hill, and then in a row are threo red-brick villa residences, with large gardens, such as would be a credit to any Australian suburb. At the foot of the gardens are long lines of tethered horses and rows of saddles, and the little blanket'shelters that make the temporary homes of these Australians who are, as the papers so constantly tel) us, " assisting to bind together the British Empire," and who aro incidentally seeing more of the world in a few month than they would see in threo lifetimes in Australia.

General Hutton, lately of Sydney and Canada, is tho general of the colonial brigade, and if any man can bring together the somewhat jarring elements of the various corps he is 'the man. It is no secret that tho Australian regiment has not been exactly a happy family. In future it ought to be free of all bickerings and quarrels, for now that the men are all together the name and honour of the colonies rest on the doings of their brigade. It includes all the Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders, except tho Lancers and Australian Horse from New South Wales, who, being cavalry, are to stop with the cavalry brigade. The Adelaide men scored a distinct success the other day. They had to march with their machine gun by road for many weary miles along the railway. Some troopers. being up bright and early, conceived the brilliant idea of taking the gun to pieces, putting "her" under the tarpaulin of the forage truck, and getting in and hiding there themselves. At grey dawn they crawled into the truck, and waited with anxious hearts. Would they be discovered? If discovered, would they be punished? Fortune favoured them, and they got away all right, and after travelling five miles or so tney crawled from under the tarpaulin, lit Jiicir pipes, and travelled along gaily. A cavalry regiment was on the train, and an officer saw them, and asked, " What are you fellows doing here?" " We're a machine-gun section, sir." They omitted to add that they were travelling without orders, and such is the British army that 1000 Boers, so long as they put on a bold face and kept quiet once they started, could march 100 miles in the middle of an army and never be discovered. No one dreamed of questioning the right of a machine-gun section to be on a cavalry train. " Ma-chine-gun section!" said tho officer. " Capital! Wo may meet Boers any minute. Mount your gun in the truck and prepare for action." And so it came that the machinegun section not only saved themselves 100 miles' walk, but arrived in high form, riding on the truck with their gun mounted. And they were looked upon as most useful comrades. If the affair had leaked out they might have been seriously punished. There is a terrible lot of typhoid fever here. As I write, a funeral party, with arms reversed, passes the window, and fatigue parties can hardly dig the graces fast enough. The sooner we move on tho belter, and the Victorians may think themselves lucky they arc to go out on the hills.

THE COLONIAL BRIGADE. Tho colonial brigade commanded by MajorGeneral Hutton includes all the Australian troops except the New South Wales*cavalry (Lancers and Ist Australian Horse), and is composed as follows: —First corns: Strathcona's Horse (Canada), commanded by Colonel E. A. H. Alderson. Sect nd corps: Lieutenant-Colonel G. C. Knight's Mounted Infantry (New South Wales) and Major H. G. Moor's Mounted Infantry (West Australia), commanded by Colonel Delisle. Third corps: Major P. Ricardo's Queensland Mounted Infantry and Major A. W. Robin's wew Zealand Mounted Infantry, commanded by Colonel T. D. Pilcher. Fourth corps: Colonel T. Price's Victorian Mounted Rifles, Captain C. J. Reade's South Australian Mounted Rifles, and Captain C. St. Clair Cameron's Tasmanian Mounted Rifles, commanded by Colonel G. Henry. Each corps, except the second, in which are the New South Wales men, is accompanied by Imperial Mounted Infantry. The "A' 1 Battery (New South Wales) and Canadian Artillery arc- also attached to the division. Colonel Williams (New South Wales) commands the medical corps. On the staff are: Colonel J. C. Hoad (Victoria), assistant adjutantgeneral ; Major W. T. Bridges (New South Wales) and Major Cartwright (Canada), deputy assistant adjutant-generals; Colonel J. M. Gordon (South Australia), officer of the lines of communication.

REINFORCING THE HIGHLAND BRIGADE. The popular Highland regiment in Sydney, and known as the Scottish Rifles, is at present in a flourishing condition, and is a good bit over its establishment. Applications still come in freely from men desirous of joining the first of the purely volunteer corps, and great care is now being exercised before a candidate is passed into the ranks. The Scottish have now a very patriotic move on foot, which many are entering into with enthusiasm. Lieutenants W. K. S. Mackenzie (anting adjutant) and H. N. MacLaurin, jun., have issued a circular to the regiment, stating that it is proposed to raise a company of 125 men from the Scottish Rifles for sen-ice in South Africa, as a reinforcement, to the famous Highland Brigade, which suffered so terribly at Migcrsfontcin and mother places. A large list has been prepared, and already several men have signed on. Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, the officer commanding, states that he docs not feel justified at this juncture in calling on the regiment for the purpose, but he has signified his approval of the idea. The question of pay and transport has not been arranged, the matter being, of course, only in the preliminary stage.

THE LAST DAYS AT LADYSMITH. The Sydney Morning Herald is publishing a narrative from inside Ladysmith. during the siege, by their war correspondent, Mr. D. A. Macdonald. We make some quotations from the concluding letters: — THE DEPRESSION. Under cover of darkness new redoubts are being built, and the front lined with wire entanglements—preparations which two months ago would have been laughed at as absurd precautions on the part of an overanxious commander. For had we not then quito satisfied ourselves that, whatever the enemy might atempt he would never nerve himself to an actual attack on the town. The climax in stagnation is reached when men have no other aspiration but to lie down all day— other desire than to be left to their own moody reflections. It is the dan. gerous stage— which fever and death quickly follow, foi fever now means in most cases death. No one bos the vitality to fight the disease. Those who arc wise crawl, while they have still strength left, to the outer ridgefc, for a 'breath of air not yet

tainted by contact with the town. The possibility of having to stay here for quite another month is rumoured, and every possible preparation is- being "made to try., arid meet this rather hopeless emergency. Twenty horses a day are being killed and made into soup for the soldiers, while the bones are stewed down into a jelly and clarified with isinglass for use in the hospitals. Necessity is the mother of invention, and, as pots large enough for the occasion were not obtainable, they have adopted instead the iron earth trucks used in railway building. The fires are lighted between the railway metals, and when the contents of each truck have been thoroughly boiled, it is shunted off to make way for another. . COMPELLED TO EAT HORSES. By the first day of February we were in the full stress of the siege. Men were being given the choice of a full pound of horseflesh to their three biscuits a day, or half-a pound of tinned beef, and gradually the majority in favour of the lighter diet became a minority, as we gave away our prejudices and were driven by hunger to the heavier ration. Indeed, we had been eating horse and mulo flesh a week or so before we knew it—deftly disguised as ragout of beef. It sounded much better than ragout of ammunition donkey. As the materials for the ragout were exhausted, it came to us in no false guise, but just as plain horse. The cavalry, of which at the oivoset of the siege we had several crack regiments, are gradually disappearing, the men, armed with rifle and bayonet, instead of lance, sword, and carbine, being drafted into the infantry regiments to man the trenches, while those of the horses that are not reduced utterly to bone and sinew arc passed on to the commissariat. Others, too poor for killing yet too valuable to kill, are turned out tethered in pairs and left to forage for themselves, so that stray horses are all over the town and tangled up with tent ropes. The idea in coupling them was, no doubt, to prevent them straying far, but it was as unnecessary as cruel. All these big walers, even if they fall into the hands of the Boers, can be identified and claimed again, for, apart from the Government brand, there is nothing like them in the Dutch States. As it is, they twist their couplings in trees and stones, and are found literally starving to death, while it is by no means rare to find a live horse coupled to one either dead or crippled by shell fire.

THE RELIEF. The realisation of the long-expected was so sudden, the suppressed excitement so great, that we could not keep the glasses steady without resting them on a rock. It was the great trek— waggons only, but riders-galloping, black-coated horsemen moving forward in groups of 20, 50, 100, a continuous living stream of more or less density coming into view round the corner of End Hill, sweeping away in a long curve, and disappearing northward behind Telegraph Hill, in the direction of their railway base. Down at the foot of the hill a little picket of the Highlanders sat in a stone fort all unconscious of the great event beyond. We shouted and pointed, so they came up to us, and then-well, there were strathspeys upon the hilltop. "Look yonder; look yonder, mon; ain't they runnin. Aye, its a pity we eanna get at them. That was the general feeling. They had locked us in, mocked us, starved us battered us for months, and instead of thanking God for our deliverance, we were eager only to get at them. It was the opportunity of a campaign. Could we but have rushed out our field batteries and mounted troops we could have decimated their transport trains, but our field batteries—the darlings of the R.A.-had become slow-goiiiL' siege trams, our cavalry and mounted infantry were unhorsed. We had eaten them into immobility. The sight was exasperat--maddening. Our gunners on the top of Caesars Hill, were sorely tried. They swung round their long-range naval 12pounders and a shell pitched at the greatest possible elevation went screaming hiirh short. fliey tried again and again, but the Esi ,ellwa3sti,lhundredsof y ai *oT

I hadl just got a change of clothes, and we We „ t mg down to our bust dinner of horseflesh, when there was a rush of feet, a shouting in the streets outside, and through the tumult came the one clear cry, " Boiler's cavalry are in sight ; they are coming across the flats." Waiting neither for horses nor horsemeat we ran, joining the stream of excited people, who were making for the nearest river drift in quick intuition that mere the incoming column must cross. There was a little flat beyond the river, further on a little ridge, and clown the side of this came a brown column of trotting horsemen. The /villus and Kaffirs were delirious. They leaped in the air and sang and shouted, their white teeth and white eyeballs gleaming Hie hospitals had poured out their sick and wounded ; all rushed to join in the paaan of welcome. There were soldiers with white and shrunken faces ; men wounded in the legs, who shuttled slowly down the road One poor young infantry officer had stopped at a deep street channel-he had no strength to Step over it, I lifted him to the other side, but there was no trouble in it, he was light, almost as a child. Two other officers drove down in a pony trap, and the ghastliness of their faces impressed one, even in that time of wild excitement. They were in plain and painful truth, living skeletons! Dundonald and his riders came down the slopes to the river, and the horsemen from the town had already gathered about them. The men of the relief column emptied their pockets and haversacks, and every man of ours who rode beside them smoked a cigarette or a cigar. They had pushed on and on when they found the Dutch had left the last of their trenches, had got touch with the enemy in many places, had fired upon them, and got not a single shot in reply. Why not go right in ? Men were no longer ashamed of their emotions. They cheered and laughed and even cried, for there was a catch in the voice and tears streaming down many a face, and women, more deeply moved, caught up their little ones and kissed them, and thanked God for their preservation and deliverance. Surely it was the greatest sight, that little gathering of mud-stained, battle- riflemen, that the eye of man ever looked upon. Ho we, who were so deeply concerned, thought it, anyhow. They had fought by day, slept tinder rain and storm at night, and not a man of them but had his full reward.

And what of the Hag '/—the flag that Sir George White, in the fullness of his heart thanked God had keen kept flying over Ladysmifh so long. It flew no longer. That night the officers gathered about the flagpole, and then in a burst of enthusiasm, and urged by a common impulse, they pulled it down, tore it into shreds, and each pinned a little fragment of it in his buttonhole. That night we gathered in Dundonald's cam]), and the men, who had given away their rations to others more hungry than themselves, told us of the long fights upon the Tugela. And we, poor, inhospitable hosts, having nothing to offer them but our gratitude, they rolled themselves wearily at last in their great coals and went stipperless to sleep. But they were entirely happy. They had " jumped " the situation and come in. Every half-hour there was the crash of our naval guns, and a. shell went shrieking overhead. The night-glasses showed dimly the flicker of lights on Umlnilwana, and we knew that the Dutch were trying to take away their gun. The bursting of the shells made a great flame of light upon the mountain top, and we hoped that an occasional shot might hamper their work. From the other side of the town the Dutch mortars threw out star shells, which lit up the veldt between the rival positions. They were not easy in their minds, and feared lest we should come out and harass them. Our far-out patrols on that side heard all night the whistle and puff of trains as they were loaded and sent away northward, KIPLING'S POEM ON JOUBERT.

Rudvard Kipling has written a poetical tribute' to the memory of General Joubert. It appeared as follows in the Times : — With those that bred, with those that loosed, tho strife He had no part whose hands were clean of gain; But subtle, strong, and stubborn, gave his life To a lost cause, and know the gift was vain. Later shall rise a people, sane and great, Forged in strong fires, by equal war made one, Telling old battles over without hateNoblest his name shall pass from sire to son.

He shall not meet the onsweop of onr van In the doomed city when we close the score; Yet o'er; his grave—his grave that holds a man— "• '•■ Our deep-tongned guns shall answer his once more. ' '""