NORTHERN FRONTIER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2402, 15 March 1900, Page 37

NORTHERN FRONTIER.

CAPETOWN; March' 13. "

General Gatacre commands the road bridge at Bethulie, on the Free State frontier. The railway bridge is damaged.

LONDON, March 12,

The Royal Irish Regiment and the South Australians, Avho are stationed in the A-anguard' at Norvals Pont, . report the

absence of any big guns on the opposite bank of the river, but that the enemy haA-e throAvn up entrenchments, and that they are laying barbed wire at the fprds.

LONDON, March 12.

The folloAving are the British losses to date : —Killed, 2419; wounded, 8747; missing, 3482 ; died from disease, 1029 ;— total, 15,677. The Daily News states that a sensation has been caused by the Boers taking preliminary steps to remove the women and children from Johannesburg. • A- large Creusot gun which had been taken from Johannesburg during the earlier stages of the campaign has now been remounted at the fort there. Presidents Kruger and- Steyn, in theii overtures for peace, represent that British territory was only occupied by the Boers for strategical and defensive purposes." The loyalty of the colonial Dutch is unshaken, and as the British prestige is now re-established they claim independence tor their Republics and an amnesty for those loyalists avlio participated in overt acts. The Avar, as they regard it, Avas -one of conquest, and therefore they resisted (J3 the uttermost. ' Sir M. Hicks-Beach has consulted Avitk the British and the colonial bankers re^ specting the issue of the Avar loan. . . LONDON, March 13.Mr Balfour, in the House of Commons, stated that the papers dealing " Avith Britain's conditions of peace Avould shortly be laid on the table of the House. Mr Wyndham announced that, Avith a vieAV; to future action, the Government were verifying the reports that the Boers Avero treating South African troops worse thai) other" prisoners. In explaining the Estimates, Mr WyncU ham referred to the prospect of a pre-: arranged scheme by Avhich the colonies would participate in Imperial defence whenever an emergency of importance arose. The Estimates enabled a continual tion of military efforts at full pressure for pis montliSj, and at half-pressure fp,r. a

Jstffher six montlis. In future the normal in, South Africa i^ouM be 12 infantry battalions. Mr Wyndham, In the House of Commons, in explaining the Estimates, said a -welcome would be given to the formation of mounted infantry as revolutionising a"great problem. BERLIN, March 13. Germany, in reply to President Krager, declined to intervene on the» ground that ■she was in no wise concerned in the conflict, ' ■ ~- .WASHINGTON, March 13. It is understood here that Krnger is inquiring, through America, about the minimum terms of peace.