THE MATABELE WAR.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1130, 27 October 1893, Page 19

THE MATABELE WAR.

THE CAUSE OF THE HOSTILITIES. REVOLTING BRUTALITY. By Telegraph. — Press Association. — Copyright. Capetown, October 24. Lord Ripon has ordered Sir Henry Loch to supersede Mr Cecil Rhodes, Premier of Cape Colony, and stop operations. He is further instructed to open negotiations with Lobengula, if possible, at Buluwayo, whither the Governor goes, accompanied by a military escort. Indignation is expressed in Capetown at the interference of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. King Lobengula's brother is among the four prisoners taken at Tati. London, October 24. Lord Gifford says a section of the Matabeles are disloyal to their leader owing to old feuds and the galling effects of Lobengula's tyranny. , London, October 25. A semi-official denial is given to the statement that the Colonial Office has ordered Sir H. Loch to supersede Mr Cecil Rhodes in directing the operations against the Matabeles, and it is explained that the company has merely been warned that Lord Ripon will control the ultimate parleying with Lobengula. There is no truth in the statement that Sir H. Loch has been instructed to prooeed at once to Buluwayo to open negotiations with the rebel King. The statement of an eye-witness has been published as throwing some further light on the direct cause of the outbreak of actual hostilities. It is to the effect that the Matabeles made incursion into the country in the vicinity of Fort Victoria in September; but that when, in "obedience to the commands of Dr Jameson, the Administrator of Mashonaland, they were peacefully retiring, the Chartered Company's forces pursued them and shot them down like rabbits.

The natives did not return the fire, and continued their retreat without retaliating. No quarter was given, the wounded Matabeles being brained or shot, and the scene is described as one of revolting brutality.