THE WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2397, 8 February 1900, Page 9

THE WAR.

« INCIDENTS AT BELMONT. HOW THE KOPJES WERE STORMED. "A RESISTLESS WAVE," 'A Cape Times representative had the pleaSure of a chat with Mr Charles Lewis Shaw, the Canadian war correspondent, who has come to South Africa in the service of a number of journals in the Dominion, to tell of the campaign and its incidents. Mr Shaw only went up to Orange River a week ago, and in that brief space of time he had seen the beginning of General Methuen's advance, taken part in the battle of Belmont, and returned to Capetown, in order to meet the Canadian contingent. THE ADVANCE OF OUR TROOPS. On Wednesday last, General Lord Methuen liad moved so far on his journey from Orange River to Kimberley as to reach a point on the Luckhoff road, just south-west of some low kopjes known locally as Kaffir's Kop. The road runs between these hills and a more elevated range of stony, steep-faced kopjes, lying in a crescent form, with the convexity of the halfmoon to the north-east. On these " rises " the Boers were known to be posted in strength, and as it was necessary to clear the road everyone knew that an assault would be delivered against the enemy on the Thursday morning. The advancing British force bivouacked for the night on the plain south of the road, and Mr Shaw, with two brother correspondents, slept oiit on the veldt. The weather was calm and not cold, and the small party spent a fairly comfortable alight in profound silence. No sound betrayed the close presence of several thousands of British troops and j body of Boers of unknown strength. In the grey of dawn the trio of newspaper men awoke, and heard the stir and movement of armed men away to the left rear. It was too dark to see far ; only faint glimpses of the coming day were visible over the kopjes, but when Mr Shaw and his companions had travelled about a mile along the road they came upon Lord Methuen's force, drawn up in a long thin line, in open order ; the Cold elream Guards occupied the right of the line, next came the Grenadiers, then the Scots, and the line egiments, Northumbrians and York shiremen, were extended to the left wing, at which was stationed the artillery. The guns were thus in face of the south-eastern horn of the semi-circle of kopjes, where the Boers had a gun posted on a peak about 150 ft above the plain. Every man was tensely alert, waiting the order, and a thrill of movement fled along the line os the first British 12-pounder emitted its sharp bark, and landed a shell close to the Boers' cannon. GRIM w AND SILENT WARRIORS. Then the advance began. The sky was lightening every minute, and the heralds of the dawn were flying westward across the cloudless heavens. There was another kind of lightning playing along the crest of the hills in front; in the hair-light, and against the rodlcy background, the volleys from Boer rifles looked for ail the world like forked lightning dancing among the boulders. Bv.g the Britons stayed never a moment. Keeping a perfect alignment, the extended line moved ever forward, as if parading at some review. There was not a sound, save the "' tramp, tramp of thousands of men, the boom of the guns, and the occasional volley. It was like the steady, resistless, unstayable roll on of a huge wave against a cliff. Soon the level plain was crossed, and the ground trended upwards in a gentle slope, which later developed into an almost precipitous as cent. How the men scrambled up is to Mr Shaw a nvystery; "they seemed to climb like monkeys," said he, CARRYING THE POSITION. By this time the Boer cannon had been silenced, but the enemy's riflemen were pumping bullets down from their eyrie against the oncoming fo'ree. The latter, still silent, fought their way up the declivity yard by yard; they wanted no calling by their officers. It was a sort of all-in-the-day's-work-has-to-be-done business, a dogged, grim display of valour such as few troops in the world could imitate. Unfortunately, the stiffest kopje of all, on the Boer left (the last to be tackled), had not been sufficiently searched by artillery fire when our gallant men reached the foot, and they had actually to be' halted for a while until the shells, shrieking close overhead and wonderfully well delivered, had somewhat cleared the way. Here it was that we lost most heavily, 40 or 50 of our soldiers dropping close together. But at length, and really for the first time in the advance, the officers could be heard. "Forward, men!" was the command, and the line recommenced to climb. The enemy was pouring down a terrific fire, but nothing could stay the onset. A- few minutes and Tommy was amongst the Boers with the steel for five wild and breath less minates. Then the enemy scattered, and hopped, and ran, and leaped down the northeastern face of the hill, making for his horses. As he skipped out of close range a score of British soldiers on the captured kopje accelerated his flight with volleys and individual shooting, and when a running man would double up all of a sudden and roll over like a shot rabbit there was no crying on the hill top. Numbers of the fugitives were knocked over, one or two at the long range of 800 yards. The unwounded reached their horses, and galloped away over the plain in a northerly direction, towards Modder River. Our Lancers had skirted the highest kopje to the east, and when the beaten enemy streamed down the slope they started in pursuit, but their horses were done up and had no mance with the fugitives. AS THE SUN ROSE. Going back a bit in his narrative, Mr Shaw draws a fine word-picture of the battle scene as it appeared under the first glint of sun light. The golden srb rose exactly over the centre of the kopjes held by the Boers, and •turned the whole brown veldt into a sea of shimmering ruddy haze, through which came the steady line of troops, casting long shadows to the rear. The sun glare did not help the men's accuracy of aim, as most of them had to fire straight into the brilliancy, and, vice versa, it helped the Boers to a better mark. But it was not here that our casualties mostly occurred; they came when the troops were scaling the last fifty yards of the hilltop. Mr Shaw and his companions got into a tight corner when the kopje was being carried. They were following the troops, but suddenly board the " wimp, whup " of bullets, and found they were being fired at by a party of fifteen or twenty Boers who had been overlooked on a rocky spur of the range to the left. The correspondents tried lying down, but bullets continued to spatter the sand close by, showing that the Boers Lad got the range, and the three men decided to join the fighting line "and take chances." This -they did, and were at the heels of the Guards ■when the last ridge was rushed. It was an exciting time, but the three escaped. _ ' Mr Shaw was ntruck most of all wilh the •deadly earnestness of tli« British soldiers.

Their steady, unceasing, inexorably sweep up to and over the kopjes must have hammered fear into the Boer heart ; it was like the oncoming of implacable Fate, and no wonder the enemy lost heart when the bayonets began to gleam among the scrub, unpleasantly near. Next to the magnificent courage of the troops, he thinks, should be mentioned the marvellous energy and skill of the engineering corps, xinder Major Stewart. When he returned from the ridge the wrecked railway track and broken down culverts had been repaired, and trains were standing ready at Belmont station, with supplies of water and medical comforts, to carry the wounded. The Boers were strongly posted, and had unlimited ammunition, but they simply coiild not wait for the bayonet. If we had had a couple of regiments of cavalry with fresh horses the rout would have been a massacre. A NEW ZEALANDER IN CAPETOWN. The following extracts from a letter written from Capetown, November 18,> 1899, afford some glimpses of war matters in South Africa and in the town the letter is dated from : — " I fear I shall be detained for a few weeks longer in this ' distressful country,' but I shall know very shortly. Business is in a state of chaos, and we all live in an atmosphere, politically speaking, charged with electricity ; still, there are few outward and visible signs 'of excitement, and people here seem to take everything with true AngloSaxon sangfroid. The man in the street worries no more about the campaign than you people do in Dunedin, if as much. It is only I when a newspaper boy with -extras is half mobbed that one knows there is anything imj usual happening. We are all watching Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking, the besieged towns which are holding out gallantly. The relieving troops are tumbling in here by thousands a day, and going straight up, vanishing, as far as our knowledge goes, into the interior. One soldier is exactly like another in the new uniform. You see one Tommy in yellow, comical-locJking garb, his nether limbs tightly swathed in yellow putties and his red face (by sun-burning) peering from under a huge yellow helmet. Multiply him by 70 thousand, and behold the Imperial foot ond horse forces. Even the Highlander (barring the kilt, which Tonal would rather perish in than part with) is converted into a yellow clad, red faced, thirsty, dusty, sweating Tommy. Shakespeare never dreamed of a nineteenth century Tommy in khaki, or he ] would have refrained from saying anything about " the pomp and circumstance of war." I-To, the pomp has gone here in the perspective, and the only circumstance you are impressed %vlth is the careless'energjr and celerity of the huge machine — men, guns, horses, supplied, day after day. The refugee, who has nothing else to do, sits on a pile of sleepers at the clockd, watching the troopships. If his patienco holds out, he may see 30,000 men and their equipments vanish into the sun-baked ''nierior with much less fuss than is made jver a Sunday .sohool picnic. The troops will more than double the numbers sent to the Crimea, and three times as many as Britain had at Waterloo. And you never hear even an order given. They come, as the Zulus sny, like the locusts. There is a great rush \,o join the irregulars. People who say civilians » won't fight should see the crowds here struggling for hours to get inside the recruiting offices. I sent a few papers, which will give you some of our news here. The rest you have in the cables. I also sent you some pamphlets, exposing the Boer and Afrikander echemes. There is no doubt this war was ju&fc in time, and the impression here is that Milner and the British Cabinet forced the Boers to ■show fight before they were quite ready. Milner. Rhodes, and Chamberlain, Buller, and Baden-Powell are the admiration of one-half of South Africa just now, and the detestation of the other half. We have to be careful in business, not to mix in politics. Our convictions, you see, have to be sacrificed to Mammon. But I fear I grow tedious, so I reciprocate your good wishes and hope you are all well, and that you may all have a Merry Christmas and n Happy TSle-v Year." A NEW ZEALANDER TAKEN PRISONER. A letter dated from Orange Rivsr ii reported by the Christchurch Press to have been received from Mr Cyril Buchanan. He writes that he accepted an offer from the De Beers Company to go out to the shooting box and protect the game and stock." All went well," he continues, "" until the 20th October, when, at 3.30 a.m. we were (four in all) aroused by a knock at the door. I happened to be awake, and thought it was one of our Kaffirs ; told him to come in. The door was opened, and six guns were pointed at us. Our rifles, standing at the door in a rack, were at once seized. We were then informed that we wore prisoners, and had better get up. We had three months' provisions for six men, which they took; also everything private, down to photos, all De Beers's stuff and wines, etc. (leaving us only a change of clothes), and all the cattle and horses, 47 head. The commando was 300 strong, under Krelling. all well armed, but not so well mounted, although some few had very good mounts." They were taken on in a waggon to the various laagers. One thing very noticeable was the number of boys, 14 to 16, end very old men, carrying guns. At Boshof they were handcuffed, and then leg-ironed owing to the conduct of a prisoner who joined them, but these were afterwards removed. They were then sent on to Bloem- I fontein. Here after several days' detention they were released, after losing all their belongings. They were escorted over the border, and they then made their way to De *E>r, and finally to the Orange River after a rconth's varied experience A CAPE OPINION OF OUR MEN. The Cape Argus of 6th December, under che heading " Colonial Volunteers.," writes as follows :—": — " It is a fact that the enthusiasm for active service on the part of the New Zealanderb was unbounded, and what applies to them applies to all the other colonies. Lads of 15 and upwands were ready 'to a man,' and had they all had their will who wanted to come the island would have been depleted of its males. Perfect health and efficiency with the rifle were the only passwords. The dread that the fighting might be over before they could be on the spot haunted the men throughout the voyage like a nightmare ; and when they did land nothing could hold them. -It is believed that some would have gone off on their own account had they not been despatched inslanter to the front. Amongst these New Zealanders nre men whose incomes range from £1000 to £1500 per annum. The Australians include a barrister whose contributions to literature have earned for him a world-wide reputation." Otago and Southland to send 100 scouts to South Africa. "Standard" Bone Manure is the most popular of Bone Manure? on the market. It 13 rich in ammonia, also phosphate of lime. Is in fine condition and of easy distribution. — NlMilO ASD BLAIJf