SURRENDER OF CRONJE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2400, 1 March 1900, Page 37

SURRENDER OF CRONJE.

UNCONDITIONAL SUEEENDEE OF HIS FOEOE. MAJUBA HILL FITTINGLY, AVENGED. - HEAVY FIGHTING AT GROBLER/S KLOOF. GALLAETEY OF THE IRISH BitIGADE. • CROWE'S CAPITULATION.

AUCKLAND, February 27. The Premier has received the following message from the Agent-general, dated London, midnight, February 27: — " Lord Roberts has telegraphed that General Cronje and all his force capitulated unconditionally at daylight to-day. " They are now prisoners in Lord Roberts's camp. . " This is the anniversary .of Majuba Hill." The Premier received the Agent-general's cablegram conveying the* news of Cronje's capitulation at 0.30 a.m. The message is dated February 27, 12.20 a.m. The Premier thinks that as a fitting-re-minder of this great occasion the whole of the schools of the colony on opening in the morning should have the message read to them to mark a brilliant epoch in the • history of the Jirnpire, and that to celebrate the occasion of this glorious victory the children should be given a holiday. , As it is too late to communicate direct with the committees and teachers, he hopes that his suggestion when seen in the public press in the morning will be generally acted upon. The Premier has also advised his Excellency to convey to Lord Roberts, on behalf of the people of New Zealand, their heartfelt thanks for and congratulations on the brilliant victory which, in his opinion, must have a potent "effect on the future operations connected with the war. COMMANDANT CRONJE. While Cronje' s conduct at Potchefstroom in 1880-81, when he refused to allow the women and children to leave the fort, and afterwards treacherously concealed, until the garrison was compelled to make terms, the fact that an armi^ stice had been arranged between Joubert and Sir Evelyn Wood, will always be remembered to his discredit, it must be recalled that his own losses have somewhat* changed him since, and that when besieging Mafeking he respected the Red Cross inqst scrupulously. Mr Douglas Story, until lately, editor of a pro-Boer napef, in an article to the Daily Mail wrote : — "Without doubt the chosen of the burghers is Cronje. Joubert they admire aa a tactician" and an organiser, but to them he is ever .' Slim a Piet.' Cronje-^-rough, burly, asking no man's friendship, and gaining that of few, with steely grey eyes peering out from below shaggy eyebrows — > is the man the burghers trust when the commandos are out. He has 1 been, with them at Bronkhurst Spruit and at" Majuba Hill. He saved the Republic at Doornkop, and no man ever yet suspected him of traffic with the Uitlanders. Cronje has been, since the day, of Smit's deaths tacitly acknowledaed th x *

People's General . of the Transvaal.. Wily and far-seeing as is Piet Joubert, no man of them can -handle troops in the field as Cionje. He has the eye of a liawk for position, the nose of a jackal for signs of weakness in an enemy. Eis manoeuvring 'of Jameson was that of Oliver Cromwell. " CJronje was commandaijt at Potchefstroom, .70 miles to the south of Erugersdorp, when Jameson crossed the border. He co-operated with Malan and Potgieter, but the conduct of 'the fight lay with the cool head of Cronje. I out to the scene of Jameson's defeat some time after the battle, and realised how much "of the hunter there is still in the Boer fighting man. No mere soldier would have herded his enemy so jmtiently into a position as Cronjo 'did. into the fatal coral at Doornkop. ' " All through the night succeeding Jameson's attack on Krugersdorp, Cronje kept warily hustling his enemy into a place of death. The brave, foodles_s troopers, heavy with sleep, were driven like sheep into a shambles. When morning broke, to the right, to the left, and in front of them Boer marksmen kept their rifles drained on the raiders. Escape there was none. But the battle was won in the night hours, while Jameson was helplessly blundering on in front of his remorseless enemy. Cronje could afford to wait until the troopers came within 100 yards- before he gave the mercy blow. "And yet there was a time in the darkness when Jameson might have escaped from his hunters. Cronje' s son was badly wounded early in the skirmish. For a moment the father's instinct overcame the general's discretion. He bore .his boy back to Krugersdorp, and left him .with Dr Viljoen there. it was a father's act, and one strangely unlike the rough farmer's exterior of the man> who mastered Sir John Willoughby. Tils' lesson learned that pitifnl -"night dictated Gronje's courteous assurance to the defender of Mafeking that the Red Cross was safe from him and his. " " While Cronje was gone, somebody blundered; and the troopers in their blindness jnearly wandered round the flank of the beaters into safety. But it was not to be ancl long ere daylight Cronje was back to repair the damage .and arrange his final battue. " That drizzly, misty night made Cronje a war god among the Boers."