GENERAL BULLER'S BRILLIANT SUCCESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11809, 11 August 1900, Page 7

GENERAL BULLER'S BRILLIANT SUCCESS.

BOTHA'S COMMANDOS DISPERSED,

LONDON, August 10. (Received August 11, at 0.35 a.m.)

General Buller's success at Amersfoprt was brilliant. He dispersed General Botha's four commandos, and captured the heights. General Botha withdrew with 10 guns.

PUNISHING SNIPERS,

LONDON, August 10.

(Received August 11, at 0.45 a.m.)

Owing to constant sniping at trains between Pretoria and Middelburg the farms in the vicinity have been burned.

DISINTERRING ARMS AND AMMUNI-

TION.

(Received August 11, at 0.35 a.m.)

The Australian, Bushmen have- disinterred immense quantities of rifles wrapped in blankets, and boxes of well-preserved ammunition from graves in the Free State intended for fufrire use.

THE PEACE DELEGATES.

BERLIN, August 9:

(Received August 11, at 0.35 a.m.) Dr Leyds and the Boer peace delegates have been on a visit here, and are going to St. Petersburg.

NOTES OF THE WAR.

By Major Kennedy

Lieutenant-general Sir Charles Warren, who has filled the position of administrator of Griqualand West and Bechuanaland, between tie Orange and Molopo Rivers, having succeeded in restoring peace within the borders of the districts under his charge, is about to return to England. Unfortunately ■ for the system of pacification adopted by General Warren, the punishments inflicted on the rebels in Bechu-

analand have been of too mild a character to deter them from again taking arms as soon as the British forces are .withdrawn from South Africa, and if the protection of the country is left to the 30,000 men who

are to form the permanent garrison of the country there will be trouble, not only in the districts lately administered by General Warren, but throughout the whole of South Africa, unless severer penalties are dealt out to the rebels who took up arms and defied the Queen's authoin ■

The sentence of 10 >-;■'•' imprisonment passed on two Canadian mounted riflemen' for illegally obtaining possession of-Mauser" rifles, and then selling them to other Boers, ■ is hardly, sufficient. Such men practically assist the enemies of the Queen far ■ more ' than they could do if they were actually serving in the Boer ranks. In justice to the army as a whole, and to the Canadian Regiment in particular, these two' men' ought to have been shot by a detachment of men from the Canadian Regiment, as the men who fought so gallantly at Paardeberg and on a hundred other fields would1 feel a personal grievance against' a traitor ' who is found serving in their ranks, and -' , whose acts hare brought' disgrace on the' / uniform of their regiment. AH through 7 the war there has been plenty of evidence to show conclusively that the officers ; sit-. ting in judgment on offenders against' the Queen's authority have been far too lenient in their treatment of rebels arid criminals,' and now comes this case, where traitors: sell to the enemy arms with which to shoot • down their countrymen and comrades, and they are let off with a term of imprisonment. ■ ' . ■ • . Fears are entertained for the safety of1 the' British force under Lieutehant : colonel' Hoare, of the sth Dragoon Guards, who

were posted at.Elands River on outpost' duty. Lord Roberts fears that this forcehas been captured, after resisting General De La Rey rs commando for 10 days. It is surmised that General De La Rey, who" was besieging Rustenburg, gave -up the idea of capturing General Baden-Po^'ell, and directed his whole force against the small outpost on Elands River. Evidently General Carrington arrived too late' to help Colonel Hoare out of the difficult position h-e occupied, as Hoare must have • surrendered before the firing ceased on Monday. Colonel Hoare is the officer whose namewas conferred on the regiment of'frontier horse which formed the main part of the' garrison which, held Mafeking during.the famous siege, which made the name of: Baden-Powell a household word throughout the English-speaking world. Colonel Hoare is quite a young man—only 30 .years of age. He was at one time adjutant of the Calcutta Light Horse, a volunteer regiment composed of European residents of Calcutta. At the beginning of the trouble in South Africa Colonel Hoare was selected, by Colonel Baden-Powell to accompany him to that country, and the selection' proved a happy one, for Colonel Hoare has shown himself to be the right sort of man for a tight place. General BadenPowell will regret to learn that his old comrade has met with disaster before the fortunes of war allowed him (BadenPowell) to go to the relief. It is barely, possible that G-enerals Baden-Powell and lan Hamilton, advancing from Rustenburg,may meet with General De La Rey, and rescue Colonel Hoare before the Boers can send him a prisoner to-Lydenburg. The difficulty in understanding the exact position of De. La. Rey's commando, or of the place which Colonel Hoare was holding, is to be found in the fact that tke Elands River is a very long stream, being fully 130 miles from source to mouth, and there is no way of finding out from the despatches what part of the country on this river Colonel Hoare was entrenched last.

Commandant De Wet has left the Free State, as he crossed to the north bank..of the Vaal River on Tuesday, with LordKitchener in, pursuit. On the same day Lord Methuen, operating from the northi and west, from the direction of Petchefstroom, came in contact with Do Wet's vanguard, so that De Wet's commando is now between two strong columns of British troops. The position of De Wet cannot be a very desirable one, to say the least, as, with Lord Kitchener in his rear to the. south, and Lord Methuen operating against1 him from the north and west, the only chance the Boers have of escape lies to ,

the eastward, -where General Clery, with his division of General Buller's army corps, holds the Elandsfontein and.Natal railwayline, across which the Boers must go in order to escape. Strategically "the position occupied by the Boers under De Wet is a hopeless one, unless perchance Commandant Christian Botha (a brother of General Botha), reported to be between Amersfort and Ermelo, can send a force to draw the attention of General Clery away from De Wet, until the latter has a chance to slip. across the railway mentioned, and reach' the hilly country to the north-east of Heidelberg," in order to evade capture. Dc Wet may take to the hills going north along the western side' of the railway which runs from Vereeniging to Johannesburg, but his chances of being able to make good his retreat by that route are not very bright, as the British forces at Johannesburg and Krugersdorp would bar his progress to the Magaliesbergs. The only other route left to him via the north-east is towards Springs. There seems to be verylittle chance of De Wet making his. escape whichever way he may turn, and, ..as. ho has now evacuated the Orange River Colony, the capture or defeat of Olivier's commando and the othei small bands of marauders now in that colony will soon follow. ■ ' ■

Although the fact has not been mentioned in the despatches, it is clear that the British garrison at Potchefstroom. has been relieyed from tlm pressure of the forces of the enemy which were investing that town, and that General Smith-Dorrien is able to hold the place, and keep the lino of railway to the west open for traffic. It is impossible to glean any idea of the state of affairs at Klerksdorp. Since the small Brit-

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isb. force left to garrison that town were compelled to evacuate it about two weeks ago, what measures, if any, have been taken to oust the Boers from possession of the town have never leaked out, so we are in doubt about the fate of the town. It is difficult to understand why there has been so much silence lately from Klerksdorp, as it is one of the very important towns in the Transvaal, ranking fourth in wealth and population.

The Delagoa Bay correspondent of the Daily Express reports the defeat of General Carrington's forces between Zeerust and Rustenburg, but there is a bare possibility of this being an error, as no date is given, and' there is no official intelligence regarding the affair. The occupation of Amerspoort by General Buller's forces on last Tuesday, after meeting -with little resistance from Commandant Christian Botha's commando, is reported. This is probably the British column reported to be marching from the south towards Machadodorp.

The- opening of the railway from Ladysmith 'to Harrismith, through Van Reenen's Pass, will enable, the transport service to send all stores for the troops in the eastern part of the Orange , River Colony by rail to Harrismith, and thus save a great deal of the work now caused by ;having to haul such supplies by waggon from the Orange River Colony railway on the west. . ■