THE BOER WAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11795, 26 July 1900, Page 2

THE BOER WAR.

■."PRETORIA DAY" IX LONDON.

(Pkom Our Ows Correspondent.). I LONDON, Juno 8. ! It was not until last Tuesday morning that ! we received the definite and authentic news of the fall of Pretoria—rather, I should say, of its pusillanimous surrender without an attempt at defence. The news was most welcome, but had been.so greatly discounted in advance that the rejoicings, although most earnest, were comparatively tame after "JMafeking Day." ' Our enthusiasm was deep, but of a chastened and more sedate character. [I is true that opposite the Mansion House an earnest attempt was made to revive meniories of Ma feking joys. For a while hats flew broadcast and noise rode rampant. But, unfortunately, the police had received timely intimation that this demonstration was to be made, and was, : moreover, to be of a distinctly spurious and I venal nature, designed, in fact, to cover the organised operations of a • trong gang of pick- ' pockets and roughs. So. directly _ matters reached something like a climax of misrule, the mob of thieves and rowdies suddenly discovered that they were completely surrounded by a cordon of constables, and that escape was impossible. The police took every man they "wanted" and promptly ran each of them in. Some smart sentences followed, and, as Mi Wegg put it, "the atomspear is clearer," as a result. i For the rest, there was a large amount of . solid and orderly jubilation among the London citizens and suburbans. Nearly every house put out flags by day and coloured lamps \or Chinese lanterns by night. Every 'bus, cab, and cart carried a flag or two, and every horse a tri-colourod rosette., every driver a red-white-and-blue favour on his whip. "God save the Queen," " Rule Britannia," and "Soldiers of the Queen " were chanted vociferously if not always in strict tune or time. Church bells rang and bands played—often with sad discordance. . . But, on the. whole, we took things pretty quietly. The climacteric success had come with such suddenness, and there had been such

CHASTENED ENTHUSIASM,

a total absence of that long preliminary, almost agonising, suspense which made the relief, successively of Ladysmith arid Mafeking, so vast a relief'to our long sustained tension, that we had hot the same inducement to let ourselves go. We were delighted at the achievement and: proud of Roberts and his crave men. But the case was not so emphatically one m which the highest qualities of our racj-had asserted themselves triumphantly over all adverse conditions, as in the case of Ladysmith and Mafeking. , And so. while we joyed and were deeply thankful for mercies vouchsafed, we did not lose our heads as, perhaps, wo did in some ' degree over Ladysmith, and still more over Mafeking. But while I am glad that we did not over Johannesburg and Pretoria., I am ! glad we. did over Ladysmith and Mafeking. : Each was creditable to us as a- nation and characteristic also. " . I It Js .remarkable how: Lord Roberts has caused his successes to synchronise with appropriate dates. He won. his first great success, the. capture of Cronje and his force, on tho anniversary of Majuba. He crossed^ the . "V^aal with his main army on the Queen's birthday. He took Johannesburg on Derby Day. And he occupied Pretoria on Eton Celebration Day, being a true and faithful ex-Etonian. Tiiis is a. curious, if not unprecedented, series of coincidences. . . ... j .

| THE CAPTURE OF BOTHA'S PASS. ' Tho Cape Times correspondent says.:—The Boers made extraordinary preparations for holding Laing's Nek, by posting guns _on Majuba and Pog'wani. The nek itself is ~ second to the Tugela heights in its entrench- ■ ments, and in- many places even deeper and ' more elaborate. Behind the trenches actual

caves have bsen dug for retiring into whilst shelling was in progress. The amoutit of laboiu- expended on Laing's Nek must have been enormous.

' s j General Buller's march on the rear of the 0 j Boei position by Botha's Pass saved thoud sands of. lives. Preparations were made to c retreat on' Sunday. After the Boer defeat lt at Alleman's Nek, most of them cleared to '■ Ondehook Nek, on the Barberton road, though '■ ' many refused to stop' there, as being- too near ! the British. Others have gone to their homes. !" j The advance towards Botha's Pass was uh--6 opposed, and to all appearances the hills in 'i : front' might have been devoid of occupation, | but the advanced infantry and horsemen tying. :- : in wait, and the heavy shelling showed that c General Buller possessed definite information., ;t The plain was crossed, and the infantry as- ° . cended'the hills and were near the top.' We 1 ; were all smiling and saying';.that the Boers 1> ', had long since, fled. ,A, moment after pur men ' s 'j were seea on the sky-line" wh'en to the a'stoh-' I ishment of all the. well-known bounds of the c ; Boer pom-pom banged out on. the hill-top on c j our right: A'little later and pom-pom fire ■t j was heard in front, followed by the crackle of n j rifle fire. The Boers were there after, all.. ° | Spurts of cannonading were heard behind the t j hill-tops in front, and shells arrived with a c ; thud in the valley, near an empty store, where ■a several members of the staff had lately been. i- The truth was out.! While the British were' advancing the Boers lay low on the hill-tops, ''■ and retired as our men approached. It should ', be explained that once the summit of what c seems to be a hill on one side was reached there is a flat, undulating country beyond, c The Boers retired to about 1200 yards, and to c all appearances the men on the top fired their .1 I Mausers, pom-poms, and guns, and retreated, :. stopping several times in their fight to fire !- J again, and scurrying away. When the Boers :■ j found that their courage was not sufficient - j tc meet the charge, they fired the grass in v- j many places, and the wind being favourable, c ! they were able to retire unseen. The South f ■ African Light Horsemen were the first to ! reach the top of the pass, and that was, at - half-past 3. Then the Boers were in the .act c of retiring, and were firing the grass. Twenty t \ minutes later the writer reached the top of t j the pass along with the South Lancashire B i Volunteers, and found the face of the country' B i for miles enveloped .in flames and smoke,. 1 j through which nothing was visible, a strong | I wind blowing from a south-easterly direction. ". I Most of the Boers retreated towards the 3 j north-west In front of and amidst the rapidly „ j clearing smoke clouds. j i Safe behind their smoke clouds they showed 9 ' fight, and after the attacking force rendhed j the summit several shells came from out of ' ! the smoke and went overhead to alicht in tho j valley below. Our cavalry and artillery went some distance in pursuit of the retreating i enernv.

enemy. Botha's Pass was won at email cost. It is difficult to estimate the strength of the | Boers. Somewhere about 1500 were: actu- ' ally seen, but it is likely that many more were ; unobserved on account of the smoke.

A COUP BY GENERAL HUTTON.

Mr A. B. Paterson ("Banjo"), in one of his recent letters to the Melbourne Argus and Sydney Morning Horald, pays a very high compliment, to ( the New Zealanders. After describing the| crossing of the Vaal, he writes: —

After getting this prisoner we went on up the north bank of the Vaal and came to Lindesque, where the Mounted Infantry, joined vis, and at .last, we came in sight of a big kopje where a perpetual snap-snap of rifle fire told us that the Transvaalers 'were really going to fight, at all events, a little. The twd cavalry brigades under French were halted, reconnoitring the kopje; but Hutton with his mounted infantry regularly took the wind out of their sails. He pushed the New Z.ealandere—probably the best troops in Africa— right acroFS our front to attack th« Boors, and so suddenly did they come along that our gunners thought they must be Boers, and treated them to three shells as they went by. Luckily no harm, was done, and French, in sarcasm, sent down to our gunners to say, " You are shooting a little bit wide, but as you are firing at our own men it is just as well."

I followed the New Zealatiders, and saw a most remarkable sight. The Boers had come down from a kopje out into the open for about a mile, and as the New Zealanders ntl» vancod the Boerg started to run back over this mile- pf ground, ■ while their friends on the kopje fired volley after volley to protect their retreat. Most of the New Zealanders engaged in the front line wore new men who had just come over, and they were fighting their first fight, and were desperately anxious to do something-to put themselves on a par with.the old Now Zealanders. who have seen no end, of fighting. They killed iwo men and wounded two more, and captured a few prisoners, who lay down till they were overtaken,, and then they calmly surrendered, quite liappy to be out of the fighting. The behaviour of the Tran»vaaler.= in this affair bears out my theory that there is no vital difference between the Trausvaaler and the Free State Boer. Either will fight well in a kopje, and neither will make a stand in tho open. As soon as the pursuit ceased the Now South Wales ambulance men, with young Airey in charge, madean appearance on the field of action, and whipped away the wounded in short order. Tho New Zoalandors had one man shot through tho thigh— a young lieutenant fighting his first fight. We all returned 'to camp, the cavalry very disgusted that the mounted infantry should have forestalled them in such a way.

BOER TREACHERY

The official report of the successful frus« tration of the Boer attempt to recapture Kroonstad is welcome news (says the Cape Times). The destruction of communication north of that point has led to gloomy forebodings as to the recrudescence of trouble in the Free State. It is unpleasant to observe that the renewal of trouble at that point is due to an act of Boer treachery. It appears that the Boer general, De 'Wet, against whom Lord Methuen was operating, asked for a two days' armistice. '.L'ho request was granted by Lord Methuen, who appears to have given, the Boer general credit for .a chivalry which, unhappily, ho cannot be said to possess. No sooner had De Wet obtained his armistice than he proceeded to avail himself of its benefits, just a,s Mr Kruger availed himself of the armistice with the Reform Committee on the occasion of the Jameson raid. Instead of loyally observing the conditions' laid down, ho* sent his artillery forward to a spot commanding the railway, and when the interval expired he, was in a position to cut theline and capture trains that were proceeding to the Transvaal with supplies. It is quite evident that the Boer cannot be treated with the courtesy and consideration of a civilised antagonist, and the outcry that took place in England less, than a week ago, when Sir Redvers Buller granted a three days' armistice to the Boer commander in Northern. Natal, shows that the people of England have taken the real'measure of the Boer, officers. Happily, Lord Roberts was; able to detach sufficient troops to deal with the forces of the treacherous Boer officer, and the result is all that could have been hoped for. It is strange that after all his experiences Lord' Methuen should have been so easily gulled.

THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE GOLDEN RAND.

The special war correspondent of a Sydneycontemporary, describing the first glimpse of the golden Rand obtained by the troops, • says:—"At dawn next day. from the liillto'ps, \vo_ looked down on a .fertile valley, and-' beyond it rose a long line of hills, running across our front. On the top of this Ion? line of bills for miles and miles there ran a•' vista of huge mine buildings—great chimneys towering in the air, hoists for lifting ore, enormous sheds for stores, and so on. ■ For months we hadn't seen any large building of any sort, and we seemed to have come on ■■ some series of giants' castles. The galvanised . iron gleamed in the sun, and the little puffs i of white smoke from one or two mines that wore working drifted out on the cool air; »but., there wasn't a, sound to be . heard nor any human being of any kind to .he seen j about the buildings, and they looked unreal, as though they might vanish away at any . moment. All the same, they, wore real enough, and we were actually looking on the famous Eand goldfield of Johannesburg."

THE BUSHMEN'S GENERAL.

The correspondent of the Sydney Telegraph with the Bushmen in Rhodesia, writing , from: Marandellos on 'May 25, says: —General Carrington seems to have gained the good esteem and regard of all ranks of Australians. This is, perhaps, only quits natural, for "Freddy" is one of those bluff, unaffected men. full of kindly good humour, and completely devoid of that " side" which one usually looks for in an Imperial officer. His words are few and to the point; he knows the country, the conditions, and, a keen judge of character, the kind of men he is dealing with. He knows exactly what a man can do, what a mule can pull, what an ox can eat. There is no river' from the Pungwe to the Mopolopo that he cannot tell you its depth in summer and winter, and the rainy season. With infinite pains and a ten-miles-to-the-inoh map, you discover a kopje, to which it is reported the Boers are trekking. You show it to the general, not without, pride at your own astuteness. He looks at it and laughs, and with a sweep of his forefinger points out whera it should be —for even map-makers are hitman, —and then proceeds to describe its height, accessibility, contours, and general appearance, and, what is more —a wonderful accomplishment for an English general—he knows what's behind the hill.

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

Mr W. Henderson, solicitor, Gore,.has jusl received a po3t. card from' his son, Trooper D. H. Henderson, of tho second contingent, dated from Kroqnslad, June 13. ' The communication. runs:—" Five other New Zealanders and myself, under Sergeant Cassidy, of Dunedin, are attached to a column of Imperial troops as.scouts and patrols. We are searching for a. commando under De Wet which has done considerable damage, and taken several prisoners. We expect to.come up on him every clay. Last Thursday a patrol of 14 men under Sergeant Cassidy came into contact with them whilst they were busily engaged bombarding Roodeval, where they, had .a great fight, and forced some 800 British to surrender.' We had a very rough time of it, and lost throe men out of. our patrol:-,■: A Queonslnnder and I had our horses shot under us, and wo had to 'foot it''.*out"of action, .one covering the other's retreat. Eventually wo got away safely, and' had to walk. 14 miles to get a- train. ■ The patrol had got into the Bosr lines,.and they didn't know we were there until two of their artillerymen had been' shot."—Mataura Ensign.

Referring to the death of Trooper Freeman, of Waimate, which was recorded in yesterday's issue, the Waimate Times states that he was tho youngest son of Mr George Freeman, who arrived in Waimate in '1864-. He was' born in November, ; 1877, and after leaving school worked for Messrs Reid and Maxwell, saddlers, of Dunedin. He went to South Africa with the second contingent as orderly to Major Cradock. Only by Monday's mail two letters wore received by his relatives from Trooper Freeman. In one of these, dated May 31, ho stated that ho had been bad with enteric fever for a month, but was quite well again and would bo going to the front in a couple of days. In another letter, dated Juno 22, he stated that he had lost 151b in weight.