THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

New Zealand Mail, 8 February 1900, Page 52

THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

WAR NOTES IN BRIEF, (From Late English Papers). All the burghers of Pretoria had their hair cut before they set out for the front, i The British residents of Chicago have subscribed 4000 dollars for the Transvaal ( War Fund. * Explosive bullets were used by the ‘ Boers at Elands Laagte. General Buller •''has received samples. . > ' Mount Buliyana, whither the neutrals . or Ladysmith ihavo retreated, has been christened “ Funkumdorf.” The Telegraph Battalion Royal Engi- . aeers brought to South Africa up less than 800 miles of field telegraph cable. > The “ Temjps ” pays\the highest tribute .. to the superb intrepidity of the English at the battle 6f Modder River. Extra guard boats are patrolling round / the ships anchored in Simon’s Bay. Trains have been fired at not eighty miles off. The “ Standard’s ” correspondent states that General Cronje had to use his whip, presumably his sjambok, to prevent his men running away when our line advanced. Private Ellis, of the Grenadier Guards, unfortunately reported as missing after the Modder River battle, was a policeman, 6ft 7in in height. He was also at Omdurman. On the way out to the Cape; the Scots Guards had a cricket match with St. Vincent on a matting wicket, and ran up the respectable total of 132, against 52 made , by the local team. The officials of Johannesburg have decided, whether they win or lose the day, to destroy the Exchange House, Goldfields Consolidated, Robinson’s, Barnato Buildings, “Star” office, etc. A former member of the Natal Mounted Police suggests that there are plenty of men. who nave Berved with that force ■who would be willing to serve again and go to the front if they were invited to do sof. Here is a Dutch description of the Lancers’ charge at Elands, Laagte: “Men on horses carrying . sticks .-with, spikes on top came galloping at usT 'They picked us up on the spikes like bundles of hay.” We are informed by the PostmasterGeneral that members of the Army PostOffice Corps who are now on active service are allowed full pay; in the case of the married men this is paid to their wives. 'Hie Boers were so amazed at the wounds inflicted by the lance at Elands Laagte that instead of burying the bodies they took some of them to Newcastle as proofs that the British had transgressed the laws of war. A young private, John Christian, of the King’s Royal Rifles, while in his tent, had his helmet top blown clean off by a shell from the Boer artillery on Talana Hill. He remarked, “Well, that’s a little hit off the top.” The Russian battleship Petropaulov.sk acoording to advices from Libau, has sailed for Durban. The average age of the British soldier now at the front is nearly two years higher than that of the soldier who fought at Waterloo. 1° the present, every member of the Transvaal Executive has lost a member of his family. The Kocks and Wolmarans have suffered most. An “Old Soldier” calculates that at the battle of the Modder River the Boers fired 854 shots for each man they hit. Is this good marksmanship ?” he asks. After advising Great Britain to get rid of Mr Chamberlain, the “Matin” goes ® B '• —“ Let. a new Gladstone: arise an<£ repeat the splendid words, spoken in 1881.” That would just suit FrencS 4 policy. ! V*- -• Kimberley signals to Lord Methuen with its searchlight by tilting the projector upwards, when words are spelt by long and short flashes, according to Admiral Coiomb’s adaptation of the JVlorse system. A goods train carrying salt pork to the coast for shipment to South Africa was wrecked on Sunday night at Kenilworth, Illinois. The accident is v put down, to the work of Boer sympathisers, but there is no evidenoe pointing that way ■ • • • - Wheelers, shoieingstaithsj and’toollarmakers for the Royal; Artillery are urgently needed by the War Office. Recruiting authorities have been told to ■ hold out special inducements. The period of service is only for one year with the colours. Not satisfied with sending a contingent of men to the war, Canada is now beginning to help our Reservists’ families. The proprietors of the “NoF-West” brand of Canadian oats are giving, as - a first instalment, 3200 21b packets of these oats to this good object. The Buenos Ayres journal “Nacion” .. states that the Great Southern Railway Company of Buenos Ayres has bought 6000 horses at , a - cost of 60dols each and branded them over to the commission of British offioers which is buying horses in Argentina, as a free gift to the British na<- • tion. A fortnight ago Sir H. Campbell-Ban-nerman asserted that the Jameson Raid led to the Boers increasing their armaments. Mr Fitzpatrick proves in the “Contemporary” that a million and a ■ 1 quarter had been spent by the Boers in buying guns, shot, and shell before ever the raid was dreamt of by Dr Jim.

No newspapers are allowed to go out of the Transvaal. A poor woman-was in:a shop on Saturday night buying some tobacco and a pipe for her boy in South Africa, and the little parcel was, being directed for her, when the paper came in with the list of casualties at Modder River, and among the killed was the name of her boy. She took the parcel home to weep over. A Lancer recently remarked in a letter from Ladysmith that the soles of his feet were getting nearly raw with constant riding. This is no doubt a typical instance, and consignments of borax, boracic acid, and l vaseline from some generous manufacturers of those articles would, it is safe to say, be most useful. More war news made in Germany! The “ Staatsburger Zeitung ” learns that the day after the battle of Modder River the following telegram was sent by direction of the Queen to “ a related Court ” (meaning probably Germany): —“ Our troops beaten with great slaughter. Majority of, the officers fallen.” , Describing an engagement where his regiment got into a tight place, “where it ought not to have been,” a soldier .of the King’s Royal Rifles writes from Ladysmith, “I had a narrow escape from being captured by three of the enemy, but I laid down and shot the three within fifty yards of me. I thought it was all up, but I believe what my fortune told me, ‘that I -should never die with my boots on.’ A gentleman lately returned from Pretoria says the place is magnificently defended with cannon and dynamite mines. The Queen takes the greatest interest in the' position of each regiment at the front, speedily pointing out any mistake made in conversation. Assisted by donations of £25 each from Viscount Cromer and Lord Kitchener, Egypt has subscribed the gratifying sum of £IOOB to the Transvaal War Fund. Two of the De Beers shells fired during the engagement! at Kimberley on November 17 killed, nine and wounded seventeen Boers who were standing together. One of the leaders in the raising of the volunteer regiments in Natal boast that there are now 4600 volunteers in jthe field,- three-fourths of whom are drilled men. ' [ “ I think this war will soon be finished,” writes a French schoolboy to his English Jriend,' “ and'that you get out of it without. dishonour; but how isad you must be!” A novel feature of the modern battle is revealed in a letter by a lieutenant at the front, who says:—“At the first fight at Reitfontein several ladies turned upon bicycles. Of course, they kept a long distance off. However, one of the enemy’s shells pitched fairly close to them, which sent them pedalling off to a safer position. Very plucky of them, though they were rather in the way.” The Administrator of Gambia, West Africa, telegraphs that the people of the colony fmopose to contribute £SOO to the War Fund. Sir Charles Napier once wrote, “In the beginning of each war we have had to seek in blood the knowledge necessary to ensure success.” An order has been placed by the War Office with the Henry Rifled Barrel and Small Arms Company, Limited/for the weekly supply of 1000 91b shrapnel shells until March 25. Many persons have been surprised by the silence of Mr Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent who has seen so much South African fighting; this silence, they will be sorry to hear, is due to serious illness. ■ “There are twelve dead Boers lying around me,” writes a Devon private from the field of battle, ■ “ and we are on top of the enemy’s position. The bullets flew about like rain, and I thought every minute I was shot.” The Trench have taken the troublb to ‘ telegraph their vtenerable lie about! the capitulation ef Ladysmith to the Arabic daily newspaper at Beyrout, in Syria, forcing English residents there to wire to Constantinople in order to find out the truth. The Boers who: now make such use of the_white flag showed the same low cunning in Livingstone’s days by sheltering themselves behind: what might be called a black flag. He says that they forced the patives they’ had conquered to stand in front of their firing line. A letter written by the late Dr Moffat; the great South African-inissiohary, says* "I.have often felt much-preseed in mind from the.reported sufferings of the Beck-, wans, robed and trodden down by the Transvaal Boers.” Consequently, when he heard that they had been surrendered with the Transvaal to the Boers, “ he was as though he had received a death-blow.” McPlaank, the nephew of Cetewayo, says that among the Zulus there is an almost universal hope that the British arms will be victorious. A wealthy Chicago lady, who was going to visit Paris, writes: —“ln consequence of the attacks on your dear old Queen we have decided to go to Italy instead.” A Lincoln, tradesman who received a tempting offer from a French firm has declined to have any dealings, however profitable, with a people who abuse our Queen.-" A truck bound from Capetown to the Transvaal contained two large boxes labelled “ Dates: To be kept cool.” An inquiring mind opened them, and found therein much ammunition for the Boers. Provincial papers, or papers that contain news of their native town, interest soldiers at the front. They should be addressed, “The Officer Commanding Regiment, South Africa,” and might he marked “Use of men.”

A shell from the 94-pounder outside Mafeking which struck Riesle’s Hotel knocked down some correspondents who were playing a game of billiards. Another took the roof off a house without hurting in the slightest five people who were breakfasting inside. The siege train destined to wreck the defences of Pretoria includes a number of howitzers sighted up to 8500 -yards a-nd throwing a 1181 b lyddite shell. The gunners have for some months past been drilling on these at Gosport. Kruger’s scapegrace nephew, who some time ago was found sleeping on a doorstep in San Francisco, told an interviewer that he bad no doubts about the success of the British, “ but,” he added, “ it will be a good thing in the end for the Boers, for it will make a better nation of them.” Lerothodi, the paramount chief of the/ Basutos; is cordially cot-operating with - Sir Godfrey Lagden, the Administrator of Basutoland. The ambulance detachment for South : Africa which has been formed-in Hamburg was received in audience by the' Empress at the New Palace. A trumpet-major at Ladysmith says in a letter:—“The rain and cold at njght are awful. We have only one blanket each to cover us in the open.” Addressing some Reservists of the York and Lancaster Regiment, the Hon Mr Justice Grantham said that the Reservists qf England had astonished the world. Fifteen Johannesburg Germans refused to be commandeered, and were in consequence, drummed out of Gold Reef City. They escaped by way of Lorenzo Marquez. “ The future of the South African war will hardly soothe the raging patriots of the Continent, who feel like dogs when they see biscuit going and none of it comes their way.”—“ Spectator.” Our Volunteers have not been useless in this war. Numbers of men now riding in the Imperial Light Horse and Rimington’s Scouts have had some military training in the Volunteers at home. No less than fifty-seven Sheffield. Reservists, eleven, of them members of the city police, are in the Coldstream Guards. Two of the police, were killed and one was wounded at - Modder River. The Washington, correspondent of the “World” says that France and Russia have arrived at an informal agreement to oppose thq annexation by Great Britain of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The natives in the Maclear district have been showing much restlessness of late. They are said to be anxious to go and) fight the Boers, but so far the district, magistrate has been able to restrain their warlike ardour. The London section of the Pan-Ger-manic Association has severed its connection with the parent society, giving as its reason that the extreme hostility manifested by the association against England is injurious to the interests of Germans living in England. The Princess of Wales’s hospital ship has been detained at Tilbury by an accident to her boiler, the top of which blew off, and since then this outward and visible sign of our Princess’s sympathy with Tommy Atkins narrowly escaped, being run down by a big steamer. The Dutch colony in St; Petersburg, after thanking the Russian people for the 70,000 roubles already subscribed towards an ambulance corps, points out that it wants half as much again. The doctors and sisters of charity will be some of them Dutch, some Russian. The Indian Transvaal War Fund, which has received universal support throughout the country, now amounts to one and a half lakhs of rupees (£10,000). “ You must never wait for the Boer to ask you to come, but be before him,” said General Gatacre when addressing his , troops at-Queenstown on,November 9. “We hope that General White,” says the “ St. James’s Gazette,” “ will not , take, the- pitcher. to the. well too- often,' else we, may perhaph Hear of his falling into another trap.” ''~ ‘ ' / Major Seton, who was wounded at Stormberg, is a particularly fine horseman. He was married a second time only last May. His first wife was Miss Byron, a daughter of the dramatist. “It is impossible,” writes a Grahamstown resident, “to describe the satisfaction produced: by' the Oommander-in-Chiers generous tribute to the quality of the South African Irregulars.” It is said that when the Naval Brigade made such a successful debut at Ladysmith, No. 1 of the 4.7-gun said on being told to fire at “ Long Tom ” : “ Can I hit him at 50(X) yards! Just a mb-' ment!” And he did. _An old soldier, who was with Sir George White in Upper Burma, gives it as his opinion that by appealing to ex-Reserv-ists the Government could raise a firstclass Army corps of men between thirty and thirty-eight years of age. An ex-lieutenant in the Royal j En- i gineers, who has personal acquaintance .with South Africa and the Boers, writes: , We want 20,000 volunteers, who can i ride and! shoot, for guerilla warfare, • then the whole complexion'of the war will change.” In military circles at Colchester, the headquarters of the Eastern Military District, which, General Gatacre commanded, no great surprise is expressed ■ at the Stormberg reverse; such things, i say the philosophers, must be expected at the first set off. Even the educated Boer is wonderfully ; ignorant. When at lunch in the house i of a well-known Johannesburger, Judge Koch observed that England could not 1 put more than 40,000 men in the field, “ , B “e brought her Indian army and -i the Volunteers into action, I

The hospital convent at ir been hit eight times bv uncivilised Boer. y “ A mother who has Wr, , , a family m South Africa/', Ijr ic 2 Boers are trained up in l v ; n baj - 3 from infancy I„ pl a S«^ Newfoundland, was to Bay to recruit 1000. fis hSeSfi« Naval Reserve. They wifPw fo - r % England and distributed home squadron to fill vacan t % Sr s “" <5 t,-ui cannot he citcn'.Jwj Canadian, Cape Colonial, \T sundry Australian battalion, m their respective district,s m the Regular Army home or abroad. merits ”-“ p aU kail ofi According to the “ Oohrt' V- • Lady Methuen is staying sham Court, the family where she is busily engaged Ch m ritj l’ for Corsham OouSJ^ tfal office to which all the imt-af charitable offerings of the the Royal Army to the have fought so well, and a fJlrjfr to those to whom the offer rf™ r i.- - sions would be useless,', it boundless enthusiasm apd loyi fj Mother lamd ” writes a co m H of the Pall Mall Gazette ’’ VT 1 - The Paris papers published a p ro cW tion, signed by President'-Kriwft mg upon all citizens of the rZE si dent abroad to present themseFS out delay before their fuSSffiS penalty for non-compliance/isifi.'j £IOO to £SOO and one tolve iffi pnsonment with loss of fiah& S confiscation of property. A' f , ' Lyddite cannot be fired fronUnm of less calibre than the 4.7-hy&ii2 8®?,- ** , ha ? i ts , own specid'S while the first shell is etrtolg DiEflOtl* shells are already, following,iaStliin lhe full range is eight miles,., .The *3 landed at Durban for the fere* 4.7-in guns, and therefore capabla 5 discharging lyddite shells, Tt'e bf ginis at Ladysmith are also! m.aßw babihty, using lyddite. *7* General French declares himself ® vmced that the Boer artilleiy at hk smith is directed by French Pr-IG®® experts De Aar has made great efforts tosh the mules that are on their way to ft front, bvxt most of the mules havehii the shoeing-smith. The son of a Hertford surgeon it; fought with the Imperial Light Horsf Elands Laagt-e states that the eqemn losses amounted to 700 killed andfS ed. i; “ Rimington’s Scouts” are know s Tigers” on account of their -lresiis: puggarees of wild-cat skin round fits hats. The War Office has bought of Ab» can packers 7,000,000 tins ortinsedEst It does not accept the spection, as the United Btat6s ; Wfr fcj partment did in the Spanish' 'war, requires all goods to be re-mEpccfal disinterested parties before, they si shipped. I