KIMBERLEY DURING THE SIEGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2408, 26 April 1900, Page 67

KIMBERLEY DURING THE SIEGE.

REMINISCENCES OF AN EYEWITNESS.

AN INTERVIEW WITH 'MR CHARLES

POLLARD

Mr Charles Pollard, long and honourably known in connection with the excellent troupe of operatic juveniles, known over half the world as Pollard's Liliputians.. arrived from Capetown in the Gothic. Mr Pollard is a native of Hobart ; and on his arrival a representative of the Hobart Mercury sought him out.

" I suppose, Mr Pollard." said the pressman, '" that we may take it that your considerable knowledge of South Africa embodies some special knowledge of causes and incidents relative to the present war?"

"jOf course." said Mr Pollard, "1 need not speak; since I am not a politicion, and the opinions of the best-informed man, inexpert in diplomacy, on this question at '.this time, must be supererogatory, to say* the Ico.ri of it. Of incidents, I may, perhaps, say something ; you see, I was shut up in Kimberley during the whole period of the siege." Good ! That narrows us down at once._ Tell mo of the siege." "Vs 7 cll, my small part of it befell in this v,T.y : We were playing for a season in Pretoria, and on the 21st of August we 'got. a ger.tlo ' lip ' from friends in the place that we couldn't do better than seek fresh fields, for this advice I was not unprepared. For days I had seen Mauser rifles openly served out in hundreds to the burghers", — tlie whole situation smelt of wax 1 . So I gathered to c;ather my charges, and incontinently £ed to JKin-.berley. Things went well with us in I-Timberley. We had played to enthusiastic houses for four weeks and five nights ; the season had only another two nights to run: but just then military friends came to me and suggested that I should get the company out of the place instanter. I knew my informants, and, knowing them, wasted no time. I went hotfoot to the railway station, and found (2 p.m.) that ho other train would leave that day ; so I arranged for a ' special ' to leave at 3. Th.-n I chartered every cab on the rank at the station, and our procession made record time to the hotels. The youngsters were quite unprepared ; some were reading, some were dozing, others were variously lazing away the afternoon ; but 1 rushed them all into the cabs helter-skelter, as they stood, leaving pretty well all their lugsrage as it lay. They thought ± was mad; but they left in that 'special' right on time. 'Then I breathed myself, and set to work collecting traps,' squaring accounts, generally preparing for my own exit. Biii, I made no exit for a considerable time ; at 9 o'clock on that same- night (13th October) the bridges were blown up— the siege of Kimberley had begun, and I struck a large patch of completely novel experience." "It ii .precisely to that, Mr Pollard, that I ae«ro to. bring you now. Can you give me ttis pith or yoiir experience during the siege?"

SOME INCIDENTS.

''I was staying ab the Central Hotel— room JNo. 9— and the first incident brought forcibV to my attention was the large and disturbing change in the bill of fare. You must remember tnat our case was worse than the case of Ladysmith, right at the start. Ladysmith was the base of operations, and at 'Ladysmiih there was some special provision of stores — at Kimbeiiey there was practically no special provivion at all. The population of Kimberley during the siege was 50,000 ; for before vhe place was beleaguered crowds of anxious refugees had come in from Mafeking, Barkly West, and a dozen other places. Well, first of all, of course, we formed a new and intimate acquaintance with that noble inimal, the horse. At first horse meat and mule meat was eatable enough, and no one could complain of it, in the circumstances ; for the horses were well and in good condition. But before the piege was over, the animals were dying of starvation when they were slaughtered, and the meat was of inferior quality. At the Central Hotel I was paying £3 3s a week, and I paid that right through. The hotel people, of course, drew daily rations proportionatsly to the number of guests. I found it advisable also to pay £5 a week to a waiter, who got me certain extra food at times — sometimes a 'fowl, perhaps; .sometimes a pair of pigeons ; these things were very good and nourishing, and I was careful not to make too particular inquiry as to where my waiter got them. Apart from the waiter, I purchased occasional luxuries, as opportunity offered. Oh, I did very well. . . . considering ! T got at least three good meals a week, right through ; and I discovered that a healthy •man can do very well on three good meals a week — the thing's worth knowing. Prices? — .well, I can only speak for myself. I paid 4s each for eggs, 30s each for fowls, 25s to 35s a bottle for whisky and brandy, 5s a pound for grapes, and 4-s a pound for tomatoes.

THE HARMLESSNESS OF SHELLS

" Now, as to the bombardment, Mr Pollard? I suppose you got used to it? " "In a sens?, yes; but, mind you, there is a perennial freshness in the situation of the man who is stuck at the wrong end of the bombaidinent, and the freshness never beeomep really enjoyable. We had guns all round us. aad the shells came in regularly — from 12pounders to 100-pomiders, — hot for business. They were always disconcerting, were the shells : they made lar^e jagged holes in things, aiid raised a lot of dust, and interfered with one's billiards and other serious business. We became quite experts after a time ; we could tell from the boom of a gun and the scream of the projectile just what size shell had arrived; a 12-pounder shell sings quite differently from a 100-pounder — this was really very interesting. Then, of course, as the shells travelled just as quickly as the report of the gun that cent them, the warning boom and the damaging impact always reached us pretty much at the same time ; and this was most inconVenient. To meet the difficulty, we had bugler? posted on the highest buildings in the town, ond immediately a gun was fired a bugle sounded-. That gave us time to dive underground. One day, I remember, a very large lady stuck in the opening of our subterranean stronghold on such an occasion, and could not be moved ; Ido not suppose that any really humorous situation was ever before so vexing to any of us."

" But this sort of thing — the shelling, I mean — must have been deadly in effect? "

" Oh, not a tithe so deadly as you would imagine. Of course, if a 100-pounder struck you full in the chest — or if a fragment of the steel casing of an exploded one removed your head— you had little time left to settle your personal affairs ; but it was a comparatively rare ihing for a phell to hit auybotby. During ihe four months of the siege the Boers sent 5000 shells into Kimbcrley, and, in spite of that, the direct mortality from shells was really surprisingly small. There were some jaan ellous escapes, ol coxu'se. Why, a 100-

pounder shell came sinking into my room — No. 9, Central Hotel, Kimbcrley — and, although I -«as ci^ly just outside the donr, I escaped unscathed, although raoft of my baggage \ra<- smashed out ot knowledge. MiRhodes was staying at the sanatorium —^ort of private hotel owned by the De Beers people — and the Boers outside knew it, just as they knew everything eke. Well, tho Boers had four guns trained on the sanatorium from four different points, and fired at it constantly right through the siege — positively without hirting it once ! Then there was a lady I knew well, a Mrs Foley. She had a houss in the town. One morning she came down to the breakfast table, and called out to her daughters, who were in a room near by. to join her. Just then there came the whistle of a 100-pounder. The shell came through the roof, smashed through the table at which Mrs Foiey was sitting, and exploded — right there an the breakfast room. Mrs Foley escaped without a scratch. Meantime, the girls, in a panic, dropped out" of their bedronn window, and one of them broke her leg nr doing it. When you remember that a 100-pound shell splits into thousands of fragments with simply terrific force, you'll realise how marvellous these escapes are ; and I could multiply such instances if it were necessary.

THE' CHIVALROUS BOERS.

"Against the grey horrors of one's memory of this siege — and however lightly one may speak of it now, there were horrors enough, I promise you — :here stands one remembrance as of pure geld. I cannot express to you how strong a sense wo all had, deep-founded in maivy proofs of each passing day's experience, of the magnificent bravery of the women. Thero was little or no hysterical display, and no trace of disorderly panic ; -in all that hazardous time I never saw an Englishwoman cowardly. They bore themselves — -I will not say like men, because that would seem to confer on us a distinction of which we are not worthy — like heroines, nobly ; their conduct was splendid. You will understand that better when I tell you that the women ran greater risks than the majority of the men did. Many of the men were in the forts, and the confounded Boers did not waste much ammunition on the forts, at any time. The women went daily to draw the rations; you would see them in a queue, 3000 or 4000 at a time. The time at which rations were served was changed every day, by way of precaution ; but the Boers always got information, for they always contrived to plant shells in the neighbourhood of the throngs of womon. Sometime!! the fire would become so hot that the poor women and children would ha%-e to go away without. their rations, after all. It was a cruel time for the women, right up to the relief.- And when at last French came in. . . . What a sight ! He was regularly cuddled by the women. They chiiiR 1 about his legs os he sat on his horse". They kissed the horse and trappings, and all they could reach of the General, and at last they sobbsd like children. I never saw such enthusiasm Jn lny life.

CECIL RHODES

''Did you see anything of Rhodes?" " Rather ! used to see? him every day. There's a man Tor you"! Rhodes was tm-questionably-the saviour of Kimbeiiey, when all is said. ' H.e knew.. the. siege was coming on, and he came to Kimberley deliberately to sea it out. At that time our whole garrison consisted of 450 of tlie Lancashires and a small •detachment of artillery with two 7-pounders. Of course &tich a handful of men could never have held the town. But Rhodes came. He started the Town Guard, and got 4000 extra equipped defenders in that way. Then he raised a thousand mounted men — Lhc Eimberley Light Horse, — supplying horses, saddles, rifles — everything — out of his own pocket. He was in and out of the hospital every day. During the last week of the siege, when the bombardment was hot beyond parallel, he sent 4000 women and children down to the deep levels of the Kimberley and De Baers mines, and kept them there for a week. I reckon that, one way and another, over this business of the siege of Kimbeiiey, Cecil Rhodes voluntarily put himself a quarter of a million out of pocket. The blacks adore him — call him a white God. At one time, while a 100-pounder posted out at Kaamfersdam was playing havic on the town, the chiefs of the Basutos' compound went to Rhodes and offered to go out at night with 4000 men and take the position. They would have succeeded—not a doubt of it ; but Rhodes would not hear of it. Cecil Rhodes is an honourable man at all costs.

TREACHERY.

"We had lots of traitors in the town. The Boers outside knew our every move; they got our morning paner every day, although we. only got a Cape paper in (paying£4- or £5 a copy) at rare intervals. Everything we did the Boers had immediate knowledge of. Labran, the American engineer, who made our gun for us, was blown to pieces by one of tho enemy's shells a week after his own gun got to work. The Boers knew of it at once, and we're delighted. It was publicly announced that - the funeral would take place at 7 in the evening — that was in the morning paper, for the information of the Boers. At 9 o'clock the funeral proceedings commenced. Immediately, a rocket went up in the town, and the Boers got to work on our hospital (where the remains of the body lay) with a 100-pounder. And yet, when two fellows of the Town Guard were proven traitors, the Dutch magistrate who tried them only gave them term? of six and twelve months' imprisonment. Of course they ought to have "been tried by martial law, and shot in the interests of public safety."

Two Hobart boys were discussing the muchvexed Boer question one day last week, taking different sides. After a wordy warfare, a pugilistic encounter ensued, with the result that the pro-Boer youngster had his nose broken.

A somewhat unusual celebration, in the shape of a double wedding, took place on Wednesday, at the residence of Mr and Mrs James Barber, Morven, parents of the brides, two brothers being united in matrimony to two sisters. The contracting parties were Mr James Taylor Stewart and Miss Euphcmia Barber, and Mr George Taylor Stewart and Miss Marion Barber, the interesting ceremony being performed by the Rev. J. Blight.