THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4425, 3 August 1901, Page 5

THE TRANSVAAL WAR.

COST OF THE CAMPAIGN. (Received August 2, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON. August 2. The Loan Bill of sixty millions has been passed by th e House of Commons in Committee'of Ways and Means. Lord Stanley, Financial Secretary to the War Office, stated that during the period between April Ist and the end of June the war had cost £25,750,000. The expenditure during the month of July had been at the rate of £1,250,000 per week. Sir Michael Hicks-Beaoh, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the sums now voted for the war would suffice till the middle of February, ’ and longer if things wept well. It was, he said, unlikely that it would be necessary to borrow again during the current financial year. Already tho war expenditure had been considerably reduced, and there was reason to anticipate a larger reduction soon. The latter remark is interpreted in the lobbies to mean the early recall of forty thousand troops. GRANT TO LORD ROBERTS. LONDON, August 1. In proposing in the House of Commons that a grant of £IOO,OOO should be made to Earl Roberts, the Hon A. J. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, in a remarkably felicitous speech, eulogised th 0 Fielcl-Marshal’s bold and original strategy. Without his courage, foresight and promptitude, the country would have suffered much humiliation and loss of prestige. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Leader of the Opposition, admitted the country’s deep debt of gratitude to Earl Roberts.. Mr Dillon and other Irish Nationalists, Mr Labquehero, and a few extreme Radicals, assailed Lord Roberts’s conduct of the war. The closure was ultimately applied, and the grant was passed by 281 to 73. Sir H. CnmpbelWßanncrman, Sir William Harcourt, and all the leading members of tho Opposition, voted with the Government. The minority consisted of the Nationalists and fourteen Radicals. (Received August 2, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, August 2. The House of Lords concurred in tho grant to Lord Roberts. Lord Salisbury and Earl Spencer eulogised the services of the Field-Marshal. CAPTURE OF A PATROL. shootingTof NATIVES. (Received August 2. 11 p.m.) LONDON, August 2. Lord Kitchener reports that two hundred Boers surrounded and captured, but afterwards released, a patrol of twenty Yeomanry at Doom river, in Orange River Colony. After the Yeomanry had surrendered the Boers shot all the native scouts accompanying the patrol. They also ki*ied a Yeoman in mistake for a Cape “boy.” Lieut.-General French reports that Commandant Kruitzinger has written announcing his intention to shoot all natives in British employ, armed 6r unarmed!. Many cases are occurring in Cape Colony of the cold-blooded murder of natives. BOERS IN CAPE COLONY. LONDON, August- 2. The Boers’ main force in Cape Colony it within the quadrilateral area bounded by lines drawn from Beaufort west to De Aar, thence to Stormberg, and by Queenstown to Beaufort West. They are split up into numerous bodies of from ten to fifty. Another group is in Herschel, in the Alival North district, while smaller bodies are in the west. The farmers everywhere support the 6nemy. ARRESTS FOR* TREASON. LONDON. August 2. Duplessis, a Boer, has been arrested on a. charge of murdering Lieutenant Nenmeyer in the Rouxville district in 1900. Mr Vanrhyn, who is a member of the Cape Legislature, together with several farmers at Vankrynsdorp, in the northwest of Cape Colony, has been arrested and charged with treason during the invasion of Cape territory last January. Mr Vanrhyn has been admitted to bail. MISCELLANEOUS.

(Received August 3, 1 a.m.) LONDON, August 2. Brigadier-General Feathersbonhaugh has seized the fertile country between Euatenburg and Zeerust. Hundreds of farmers were discovered quietly pursuing agriculture. Large captures of stock were made, and immense quantities of concealed grain and mealies removed or destroyed, A Boar commandant near Krugersdorp. in the Western Transvaal, offered to send to tb*, British eamus the female relations 0 f Boers who had recently surrendered. The offer was accepted. The enemy were short of provisions. A commando with two guns has entered Portuguese territory at Guamefz. Fight hundred Portuguese troops are demanding their surrender.