GENERAL ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2396, 1 February 1900, Page 24

GENERAL ITEMS.

CAPETOWN, January 24.

Two additional regiments of Southi African Light Horse, named after Lords Roberts and Kitchener, are being raised.

Capetown, Pietermaritzburg, and Durban residents are organising supplies andj comforts for the Ladysmith garrison.

The hospital ship Maine has arrived &% Capetown. J3he proceeds to Durban.

Cattle are now grazing in the streets of Johannesburg, and the stores are being robbed wholesale.

The Boers are only crushing the rich portions of the ore taken from the " commandeered " mines.

A Johannesburg Dutch solicitor has induced President Kruger to renew all . Mr J. B. Robinson's mining claims in Johannesburg.

January 25.

Sergeant-major Greener, who deserted from the Engineers at Aldershot, was 'captured at the battle of Magersfontein, fighting for the Boers. He was court-martialled and shot at Capetown. He taught the Boers trench-work. " -

The Englishmen possessing passes who remained in the Free State were shot ab Harris mith for'refusing to fight. The steamer Hans Wagner, which the British _ had seized at Delagoa Bay, haa been released.

The troopship Kildonan Castle has arrived at Durbau with 2000 more troops.

January 26.

Tlie contraband portion of the Hans Wagner's cargo has been landed at Porb Elizabeth. President Kruger sent a message to President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, in December, urging him to enforce firmness amongst the Fr«£ Staters. He said the loss of the independence of the Republic? would be due to coj/ardice/~ adding thafc he would not surrender the Transvaal, even if half of the Boei-s were sacrificed. Presi-. dent Steyn, in appealing to the Fred Staters, admitted their cowardice and in*

subordination, especially at the battle of jModder River.

January 27.

Tke first portion of tne seventh division 'of the second army corps has arrived at Capetown.

January 28.

Sir A. Milner has issued a proclamation 'declaring that the validity of the forfeiture of property in the Transvaal and Free State subsequent to the issue of the Boer Ultimatum Avill not be recognised.

The Boers are manufacturing 12,000 cartridges and 200 shells daily. LORENZO MARQUEZ, January 24.

A Boer commando has crossed Portuguese territory into Rhodesia. A force of Portuguese artillery have been sent to prevent any further breaches of international law.

LONDON, January 23.

Private St. John, champion boxer, belonging to the Ist Grenadier Guards, killed 11 Boers 'before he was killed himself at Belmont. ,

R. Sutton Siever, a well-known bookmaker, raised a company in Bedfordshire to serve with the Imperial Yeomanry, but it was ultimately disbanded owing to difficulties raised by the War Office.

Lieutenant-colonel H. A. Eager, of the Irish RiUes attached to General Gatacre' s column, had his leg amputated as the result of a wound.

Botha commands the Boer forces at Spion Kop.

General Buller holds troops in readiness to follow up the successes.

Generals French and Gatacre are moving forward, and General Methuen keeps the enemy alert in their trenches.

January 24

The subscriptions to the war fund are so liberal that eA*ery soldier's widoAV will receive a life pension of 10s per week.

Lord Roseberry, speaking at Chatham, said the war in some respects Avas the most foimidable Britain had ever undertaken, recalling the Austrians' task in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He trusted that the Avorst was now over. The spirit evoked counterbalanced the losses. The events during the A^eek in which the Colenso battle was fought, Avhen General

Buller received his reverse] in the case of other nations might have led to a revolution. He was never so proud of Britain as in that week. There was no tendency to accuse anyone. Politics disappeared, and there was little or no criticism, but a passionate resolve to outpour the last shilling and the last man to assist the country's needs.

Lord Rosebery said Europe's antagonism to Britain Avas attributable to corrupt information.

Mr A. A. Dangar, of Sydney, has given '£1000 to the Australian Bushmen's Contingent Fund.

Five hundred men have volunteered for the mounted corps that Sir Peter Lumsclen is raising for service in South Africa.

Private firms are contributing largely tOAvards the expense of equipping it.

India's contribution to the war fund has reached £30,000.

Mr Montagu White, late consul-general in London for the Transvaal, had an intervieAV, extending over ' an hour, with Mr Hay, the recently-appointed American consul at Pretoria, who is en route for the Transvaal capital.

.January 25. Mr John Morley, speaking at Forfar, said : " Liberal Imperialism Avas simply Chamberlain Avine Avith a Rosebery label."' He disliked the name of Empire, and preferred a great confederacy of States, whereof Britain would be the centre. He declared that this war must be carried to a finish.

The War Office authorities are hastily constructing neAV sights to the Lee-En-field rifles, this action haA*ing been necessitated in order to correct a serious error. They have already altered 250,000. January 26.

Mr W. P. Reeves has applied to the colonists in London for subscriptions to help equip 200 NeAV Zealand Rough Riders and to provide comforts for the New Zealand contingents.

January 27.

'Vivid official despatches from officers commanding at the front have been gazetted. From these it is gathered that General White wished at the outset to concentrate his forces at Ladj r smith, but Sir W. F. Hely Hutchinson, Governor of Natal, on political grounds, resisted. General White therefore assumed the military risk of trying to leinaiu at Dundee. General Lord Methuen states that he was unaware of the nature of the country round the Modder RiA'er.

General Buller describe-; the awkward position at the battle of Coloii c ;o, and says that all the Boer visible di 'fences were shelled without dkcloshig the enemy. He severely blames Colonel Long, aylio commanded the artillery, for his impetuous disregard of orders Avhen ih; situation was promising.

Dealing with the question of scouting, Buller refers to Major-general Woods's captux© of Zoutos^an'/s Drift as au example of

the successful use of scouts, and says he

supposes British officers will ultimately learn the value of scouting, instead of, as heretofore, blundering into the middle of the enemy and suffering accordingly. Volunteers are acting as a Queen's guard at Osbornc.

Jsjßuary 28. Lord Tweedmouth, speaking in Edinburgh, said that the Liberals were fully in accord that the war in South Africa must be earned on to a decisive victory, what ever may be the co&t.

The Prince of Wales inspected 600 of the first batch of the Imperial Yeomanry. They afterwards sailed for South Africa. The last batch of the City of London Volunteers also depaited after being entertained at supper at the Mansion House.

Three hundred and fifty picked mounted men have left for Durban.

General Ricciotti Garibaldi has offered Great Britain several thousand Italian volunteers for service in South Africa.

PARIS, January 27.

Dr Leyds, of the Transvaal, was a guest at President Loubet's diplomatic dinner. Sir E. J. Monson, the British Ambassador to France, was absent.

January 28

"The journal Siecle has published a document signed by 100,000 Frenchmen in 1871 thanking England for her gifts of food and ambulance appliances.

BERLIN, January 28.

Dr Leyds attended Prince Hohenlohe's (Chancellor of the Empire) dinner on the occasion of the Kaiser's birthday. CALCUTTA, January 24. The war excitement in India is eclipsing the excitement over the famine.

NEW YORK, January 24. An injunction has besn granted by the Philadelphia Court, at the instance of a Britisher, detaining the steamer Mermuda on the ground that she was intended to convey contraband for the Boers

MELBOURNE, January 27.

The Premier states that the Bushmen's contingent now forming for the Transvaal are the beginning of a general enrolment of the bushmen for local defence purposes, as such a body would be extremely useful in case of emergency.

January 29

A trooper in the second contingent was landed at Albany for insubordination in refusing to be vaccinated. The Minister of Defence considers the offence trivial, and that a few hours' detention in the guardroom would have met the case.

SYDNEY, January 25.

The cost of the colony's contingents sent to the Transvaal, allowing for six months' pay, is £125,000.

January 26. contingent fund has

The bushmen's reached £24,374.

Mr Lj m e, the Premier, speaking at the regatta luncheon, hoped that no more troops would be required after the bushmen's contingent. If more were wanted the colony had one thousand men training in camp.

January 27.

Lieutenant Dowling, of the New South JWales Patrol, wounded and captured at Rendsburg, has wired from Pretoria that he is being well looked after. His wounds are healing fast.

January 29,

An effort was made at the Labour Conference to discuss the Transvaal war, but the motion condemning hostilities was not received.

Mr Neilson, a Labour member, addressing his constituents, gave expression to pro-Boer sympathies. He asserted that the colonial contingents' loyalty was proportionate to the price paid for their services. Many of the audience quitted the building.

The British Government despatched two transports from Capetown on Thursday last, the 25th, to fetch the Bushmen's contingent.

' ADELAIDE, January 27.

The second contingent marched through the streets, accompanied by the New South Wales contingent. There were immense crowds and the most fervid enthusiasm. They were shipped aboard the Surrey, and sail to-day.

January 28. Trooper Cox, one of the New South Wales contingent, died of pneumonia.

The Surrey, Avith the New South. Wales and South Australian troops, sailed for South Africa yesterday morning.

BRISBANE, January 24.

Mr Chamberlain has cabled that the offer of a third Queensland contingent has been submitted to .the War Office.