DE WET CAPTURED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3169, 9 December 1914, Page 22

DE WET CAPTURED.

LONDON, December 2. Official: De Wet has been captured. PRETORIA, December 2. Official : The rebel General Wessel’s commando on Sunday attacked Commandant Emmett. The rebels were repidsed, losing three killed and 18 wounded. Five loyalists were wounded. Commandant Trichardt captured 14 ebels elsewhere. Among Commandant Emmett’s prisoners are Captain Vandam (General Wessel’s adjutant) and a well-known character who was prominent in the capturing of Harrismith. GERMANY APOLOGISES. LONDON, December 3. Reuter states that Germany has apologised to Portugal for the invasion of Angola. BEATING THE BIG DRUM. AMSTERDAM, December 3. Dr von isetmnann=rfollweg, in the Reichstag, said that the troops had carried the war into the enemy’s conntry and there stood firm. They could regard their future with every con= fidence, but the enemy’s resistance was unbroken. The Germans were not yet at the end of their sacrifices, and the nation would continue to sup. port these with the same heroism as hitherto. For we must and will fight to a successful end a defensive war for right and freedom. They would then remember how defenceless corn, patriots in hostile countries had been maltreated in a manner which was a disgrace to all civilisation. The world must learn that none could hurt a hair

of the head of a German with im= punity. GERMAN WAR CREDIT. AMSTERDAM, December 2. Advices from Berlin state that the Reichstag has passed a war credit of £250,0(10,000, Herr Liebknecht being the only dissentient. ACTIVITY AT KIEL. GERMAN WARSHIPS TRANSFERRED. LONDON, December 2. The Daily Mail’s Copenhagen correspondent says that most of the German warships which have hitherto been at Kiel have been transferred to the North Sea. Great activity continues at Kiel, where several thousand mechanics are employed on submarines, waterplanes, and floating batteries. There is less activity over the five new Dreadnoughts which are building. THE CROWN PRINCE. SUPPOSED PRESS INTERVIEW. LONDON, December 2. An American correspondent who interviewed the Crown Prince at his headquarters in the field describes him as a sober, earnest, serious, and thoughtful youngman with a deep sense of his responsibility. The Prince characterised the war as a wanton sacrifice of life —a struggle which seemed to have little sense or reason. He declared that Germany was left no choice in the matter. “ From the lowest to the highest the people of Germany,” he declared, “know we are fighting for our existence. You will never be able to convince the German people that this war was not engineered wholly for the purpose of crushing Germany. There is no war party in Germany ; militarism is merely a phrase with which England is endeavouring to create a scare and arouse the world against us.” When told that it was reported that the Russians had nearly captured the Kaiser in the vicinity of Warsaw, the Prince laughed heartily, and said I must tell father that; he vrould enjoy it.” “It is simply incredible,’’ he continued, “ what the English papers print about me, also about our side of the war, thinking me capable of stealing, and of permitting my soldiers to loot French homes.” GERMANY MISUNDERSTOOD. NEW YORK, December 3. Herr Dernburg, an ex-Colonial Secretary for Germany, addressing an economic club, alluded to the war. He said it was stupid, unnecessary, and uncalled for. Germany’s cause was misunderstood by her enemies, who were able to supply the United States fully with statements from their side of the question, and therefore the American-German relations were becoming strained. He hoped, on the resumption of business between the two countries, they would find the same spirit of friendliness prevailing as before the war. He believed America would play the part of mediator at the close of the war. ,