WAR BREVITIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8697, 16 December 1899, Page 3

WAR BREVITIES.

There is a Cronje bombarding Mafeking, a Cronje investing Kimberley, and a Cronje with the Wimberg commando took part in the Reitfonteiu fight. There are 10,000 ex-army men serving in the rank and file of the British militia, the majority of whom have Btten active service, and a sufficiency of ex-army officers ■*■• to officer all this force. f< The very latest in newspaper gnessing n prizes is an offer of £25 by the proprietors of To-day to " the reader sending in the correct date upon which the British flag will be hoisted at Pretoria." The war correspondent of the Daily . Mail, in his account of the battle of Glencoe, says :— "I noticed looking through my glasses how much the Boers seem to be nonplussed by the tactics of the Imperial troopa, especially, the welldrilled, swift-moving horsemen. The _ enemy remain as of old, a mob ; they are without horses and forage, and many rely - for food upon what they can obtain by ij looting. Their animals are mostly in a wretched condition." « In the course of the charge at Elands si Laagte, according to the Morning Post correspondent, " one of the men belonging to the Manchesters refrained from running ti bis bayonet through a wounded Boer. The Dutchman's gratitude was the same as that shown by .the Dervishes to British a ' soidiers at Omdurman, for he pointed his rifle at his preserver and shot him through the head." Trumpeter Sherlock, a boy of 14, whose regimental nickname is "Littleßedbreast," is the youngest whose fame has resounded through the world, because at Elands Laagte he galloped ahead and shot three Boera with bis revolver. Boers having captured Mr Easton, an American war correspondent, the Wash- _ ington Government has instructed its representative in the Transvaal to seoure f J his immediate release. Colonel Baden-Powell's men have found m a pioturesque name for the rattle of bullets on an armored train. "Gun laughter" tli they call it. te The Coldatream Guards rejoice in the possession of four brothers with the appropriate name of Battle. They are all now serving at the front. , Within twenty-four hours of the battle _ of Glencoe, in the remote corner of Natal, though the telegraph wires were cut on the main line of communication, the War Office in London was ready with a list of H the 214 officers and men killed and J wounded. The Battle of Inkerman was Bi fought on sth November, 1854. On the 16th news of viotory was received. A s{ week later the liat of killed and wounded T nas published. An officer's duty is to ohoose the line of a< advance for his men, and to see where he can next beßt get cover for his men. He 5! must, in order to do his duty, run more chance of being hit than his men. Heuce a large percentage of casualties amongst British officers. The stores in Johannesburg have been , protected with corrugated iron or other- i wise. Red Cross flags fly on Borne of the houses, and the Yankees have, in addition to flying the Stars and Stripes, had painted .. in huge letters over the fronts of their shops " American Property " in English or Dutch. The censorship in the present campaign is more Btriot than has ever been known J» before during war time. *j Half-pay will be given to every Res«r- "J vist in a Government office during the cl time of his service abroad.