GENERAL DE LA REY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1510, 7 February 1901, Page 23

GENERAL DE LA REY.

IN PRAISE OF A CHIVALROUS SOLDIER.

(By Douglas Story.)

The most dignified of all the Boer generals, General De la Key, has the appearance of a Hebrew patriarch, the manners of an old-time French seigneur. When first I mefc him, in his tent, during the present war, he rose and, speaking in the taal, said : “Sir, I welcome you. You have a reputation as an honest man, and the Republic has need of truthful chroniclers in these days.”

So ceremonial a greeting was never vouchsafed to me, before or since, by any Boer leader in the war. And yet is De la Rey a true Boer. The fine lines of his Hugenot ancestry are apparent in his high-spirited, finely chiselled nose, his well-poised head, his delicate hands and feet. His breast is swept by a well-combed beard, and his whole stature shortened by the massiveness of his fine head.

General De la Rey stepped into the war with a fine reputation as a leader. As a field cornet he had served his country in all of its native wars since 1552, and when the Free State was at war with the Basutos in' 1865 he had charge of a commando. THAT 1 OLD MAN.

For eleven years he has occupied a< seat in the First Volksi’aad, and gained for himself there a widespread reputation*as the silent member. A lifelong opponent of Paul Kruger, he said some years ago, in my presence, to very intimate friends of his and mine, “No good can possibly come to this State until that old man is out of the way.” His known. opposition to President Kruger cost him the position of CommandantGeneral when Piet Joubert died.

In the war General De la Rey was not a man to seek to add to his reputation by self-advertisement, nor were his political opinions such as to gain voluntary advertisement from the Government. In war as in the Raacl, De la Rey has been the .silent man. And yet has be done work second to none in the field. In the first days of the war the Free State. Boers recognised the importance of seizing Orange River and De Aar. To that end they dispatched two commandoes—the Jacobsdal and Fanresmith —with orders to take those important and exposed British outposts. Unfortunately for the Boer plan the rival commandants quarellecl incessantly, and valuable weeks were frittered away. Finally, in a krygsraad held iii the laager before Kimberley it was decided that Vecht General Prinsloo, with 300 Free Staters, and General De la Rey, with 60 Transvallers, should join these commandoes and push matters energetically in the south-west corner of the State. Vecht. General Prinsloo was given supreme command, as it was a Free State affair, and Free Staters formed the majority of the force at his disposal. The delay had given Lord Methuen time to bring .up his troops, and Koos Prinsloo lost his battles at- Belmont and Kooilaagte (Graspan). .So far, De la Re3’", the silent man, had not interfered in the arrangement of matters. His chance came at Modder River. “ARE YOU GOING TO DIE?” The true story of Modder River battle has not yet been told. Suffice it that General De la Rey, and not General Cronje, was the moving spirit on the Boer side. He chose the positions and he fought the battle. In the evening the Boers, who had lost all their commissariat at Belmont, retreat eel to their hoofd laagers in search of food. They bad won the battle, but physical necessity forced them to yield the ground. It was at this fight General De la Rey suffered a tragic loss. I give the little story exactly as the weather-worn general gave it to me. Remember only that its tragedy was infinitely deeper when one was in the actual presence of that taciturn, sad-eyed man. with his soft voice stilling the movement of his busy adjutants.

“Yes, I had my eldest boy Avith me in the first battles. He avas only fifteen, and not big for his age, but Avhereyer I went he Avent-., and I think he did his duty.

“We Avere AA’alking together from cne ' position to another *at Modder River, when the boy began to lag a little behind. I turned to him and asked if he were hit ? “ ‘Yes, father.’ “I said, ‘You had better come with me to the ambulance, then.' And Ave- walked across to the tent. “Arrived there, he lay down and began to gi'OAV A T ery grey. “I asked, ‘Does it pain you, boy ?” .“‘Yes, father/ “‘Are you going to die. my son?’ * f ‘Yes, father.’ ‘ln half an hour he Avas dead, shot through the abdomen.” Outside a brandAvacht was off-saddling their horses. Across the tent the adjutants returned to their telegrams and their despatches. The weary man in the middle slowly lit his great pipe and we talked of other things.

These taa’o men, Lord' Roberts and General De la Rey, have a great oond in common in the loss of their first-horn, AN ENEMY TO BE RESPECTED. No sooner had his eldest son been killed than General De la Rey was joined

at the front by his second sou, a boy scarcely yet four icon. If a Lc-c-_Vlotford bullet- lias not found him also, that little lad will be bearing the- terrible fatigues of guerilla war at h : A father’s side today.

At- Mager.sfontein General De la Rey occupied the extreme left of the Boer position. The choice of the Magersfontein position was his, in opposition to General Oronje’s suggestion of a stand at Scholtz Nek. At four o’clock on the Monday afternoon of the Magersf-ontein battles General De 3a Rey had to sustain a very fierce- attack of Lord Methuen’s forces. His defence was perfectly successful.

and the dead lay very thick before iis position when Chaplain Robertson went there with his burial party on the Wednesday. Throughout the war General De hi Rey has been continuously at the front. He lay very ill for a time at Kroonstad, hut rose from his bed to take command of the scattered commandoes opposing Lord Roberts’s advance from Bloemfontein. •

I had a curious discussion with Mr Reitz once as to the height of General De la Rey. I had called him a “smallish, man,” and the State Secretary contended he was tall. In matter of inches I believe Mr Reitz was correct, but if I were describing the man to one who desired to recognise him I .should still call him a smallish man. Ills massive head and heavy beard set on a spare, cleancut body, give him the appearance of a man of very medium stature. And yet. I suppose, he is oft lO’.in in height. THE GRAND OLD NAME- OF 'GENTLEMAN.

He was a strange figure in the field. Dressed in a coarse brown tweed suit, with a great light-coloured patch on the seat of his trousers, he rode a ragged Basuto pony. He had none of the trim neatness- of Louis Botha, none of the alderman impressiveness of Lucas Meyer; yet his keen eye and sad, reflective face commanded respect. His native dignity asserted itself through his clothes.

No man has ever accused De la Rey of anything approaching dishonesty. _ In him in grand material for a loyal British subject. He voted against the despatch of the ultimatum- in the last secret session of the Volksraad before the war, and he has fought throughout as a patriot, not as a political agitator.

A little extract- from Lord Roberts’s despatch, dated Pretoria, October 13, rs

is characteristic of the man

“Five prisoners have arrived at Krugersdorp, having beeii released by De la Rey—Corporal Welham and Privates Fretham and Nicholas, belonging to the Northumberland Fusiliers : Private Dirgan, to the Border Horse ; and Private Keyss, to the Kimberley Mounted Corps’. They were for some time in gaol at Zeerust and not well treated, until De la Rey arrived there, when all went well with them.”

General De la Rey is too good a soldier, and has too high a respect for his opponents, to stoop to petty annoyances against the men who fall into his hands.

He is in every sense of the term one of Nature’s gentleman—brave, courteous-, and chivalrous.