WAR NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4406, 12 July 1901, Page 3

WAR NEWS.

SLIGHT HOPES OF PEACE. PROBABLE LENGTH OF THE STRUGGLE. SHIPMENTS OF HORSES MULES. (Per R.M.S. Sonoma at Auckland.) SAN FRANCISCO, June 20. Mr W. T. Stead writes from London that after hearing all that can be gleaned from every source, he is of opinion that the war in South Africa is not near its end. He discussed affairs with Mrs Botha, wife of the Comman-der-in-Chief of the Boer army, who recently left London for the Hague, and though he speaks of Mrs Botha as a very reticent woman, the little sho had to say was important. Mrs Botha is on good terms with General Kitchener, and by his permission she was permitted to visit her husband immediately before her departure for Europe. She found General Botha in a much better condition than she anticipated. He and his men are well clothed,* well horsed and well fed, and according to all accounts capable of carrying on the war for two years to come. Their determination is -to go on fighting so long as. ammunition is to be obtained by any means. Mr Stead believes, however, that if General Kitchener were allowed a free hand he might make a settlement on the following basis :—First, an amnesty for Cape Colonists who have taken up arms in support of the Boers; second, the rebuilding and restocking of farms devastated by order of British generals. The sum named at a previous interview between Botha and Kitchener, a million pounds sterling, is declared to be entirely inadequate. Five times that amount would not compensate the burghers. Thirdly, there is to be no question of giving votes to Kaffirs, a point to which Boers attach greatest importance. Fourthly; a period of Crown Colony government which is to be an interregnum between the present: state of things and the establishment of responsible self-governmnt, to he reduced to shortest definite period, and that in the consultative council of the Governor of the Transvaal, leading burghers such as Botha and De la Rey should he permitted to sit.

If these concessions were offered in good faith, it is possible many burghers would be content to lay down their arms and recognise the, authority of Lord Milner as the representative of Great Britain. Such seem to be the smallest concessions the burghers could contemplate accepting. That being" so, the chances of any cessation of the conflict are of the slightest. Mr Chamberlain maintains Lord Milner is the "one • person with whom the Government cannot afford to break. Lord Milner, therefore, has only to threaten to resign to bring the Cabinet to terms. Lord Milner is absolutely opposed to any concession of the nature above outlined, and deplares it is impossible to • regard the burshers as if they were a national unit. These burghers are a stubborn breed, however, and as their constitutional obstinacy is > well reinforced by religious belief, it appears probable the war will go on and the drain on both sides will continue. England will continue to lose two million pounds , per week and three thousand men per month;. the Boers will" lose in killed and’ wounded and prisoners about seventy men per day., There are at present. nineteen thousand Boers in the prison camps ,in Africa, India. St. Helena and Ceylon. The fighting Boers in the field can hardly number rtore than fourteen or fifteen thousand. Men with arms in their hands in the i midst’ of a black population of. seven hundred thousand who have enough to eat can hardly starve., A dispatch from New Orleans' dated June 17th says:—British activity here; which slackened suddenly a month ago > has been revived. Orders have ' been received to keep rushing horses and mules to South Africa, at least through the summer. Within twenty-four hours two special trains with twelve hundred head were rushed in from the West, and eight of the largest transports Jo be had are steaming here for JSads. Up to date in round numbers a hundred transports have taken to South Africa one hundred and twenty thousand head of horses and mules,* and to accomplish this more than twenty-five millicji dollars have been spent in the United States by Great Britain. Captain Marshall, .who has represented the British. Government Here since the purchase of stock'was commenced, has been recalled to London for a conference with the War Office! He is succeed by Captain Fenner. . , ■ ■

The “Daily Mail’s” Capetown correspondent says :-—Mr Cecil, Rhodes,- speaking at Buluwayo recently, predicted that federation of the South African States would come in three or four years, but he contended that'to grant self-government to the late Republics before federation would render fed a ration impossible. '. The Associated Press has obtained a statement from the German. Foreign Office authorised- by Count Von Bulow which declares—Neither Great Britain, France,, nor Russia ever, approached Germany to. participate in any action aiming at ending' the South Africa war. Germany has all along distinguished between offering ' good offices- and’ intervention. Ta_ render good offices would be possible if both parties requested it, out it vyi’l be remembered that Great Britain only joined the Hague Conference on condition that the Boer States were excluded. There is no doubt that, Mr Kruger to Europe to obtain the good offices of several of the Powers to. end the war, but there is also no doubt that Great Britain does. not want-their good offices. At least, it is true, that since the war began Great Britain has never verbally or in writing, confidehtically or officially, broached t such an idea. •