BRITON V. BOER

Southland Times, Issue 14515, 15 December 1899, Page 2

BRITON V. BOER

THE FIGHTING AT MAGERSFONTEIN. BATTLE STISL PROCEEDING. HEAVY BRITISH LOSSES. BOERS STILL HOLD~ THE POSITION. FRICTION' BETWEEN TRANSVAALERS AND FREE STATERS. BOER TRIBUTE TO BRITISH GALLANTRY. RATIONS REDUCED AT MAFEKING. WAR RELIEF FUND £405,000. [United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph —Copyright). Capetown, Deo. 13. A heavy a:tillery duel has been proceeding since Sunday at Magertfontein, north of Modder River. The British infantry attacked the enemy's trenches and suffered htavy loss. The Boers maintain their position, and the battle is proceeding. In connection with the statamenb thab friction exists between President Steyn and Commandant Cronja it is reported that the Transvaal troops are dominating the Free Staters. Cronje (who has the Free State Commandant Prinslco associated with him in command) had, it appears, ordered tho shooting of any Free Staters who attempted to desert or discontinued to fire on the British. The Boers pay a hearty tribute to MajorGeneral Sir Archibald Hunter for his successful sortie at Lombardskop on Thursday. General White addressing the Natd Volunteers, who took part in the affair, said the feat was a credit to colonial troops and the Empire. As a precautionary measure the rations of the Mafeking defenders have been reduced by half a pound of meat and a quarter of a pound of bread per day. The Rhodesia column, under Cclonel Plummer, when advancing on Mafeking found Gaberones, a place eighty miles north of Mafeking, evacuated by the Boers on 2nd December.

Colonel Plummer repaired the railway as he advanced couth wards.

London, Dee. 13. English militia will garrison the Channel Islands and Malta in place of the troops ordered to South Africa. The war relief fund now amounts to £405,000.

Latest.

GATACRE ABANDONS MOLTENO. FUTILE) ASSAULT ON MAGERSFONTEIN. HIGHLAND BRIGADE SUFFERS. GENERAL WAUCHOPE KILLED. 300 WOUNDED AT ORANGE RIVER. METHUEN DESPATCHES. ADMISSION OF FAILURE AND GREAT LOSSES. RETREAT IO MODDER RIVER. BOERS OCCUPY THE BRITISH POSITION. THE ENEMY LOST HEAVILY. DEATH OF ENGLAND’S PREMIER MARQUIS. THE TIMES SEVERE ON METHUEN’S TACTICS : HIGHLANDERS SENT INTO A TRAP WITHOUT ARTILLERY PROTECTION. GRAVE SENSATION IN BRITAIN. MORE TROOPS CALLED FOR. HELP SHOULD BE SOUGHT FROM THE COLONIES. THE HIGHLAND BRIGADE IN QUARTER - COLUMN AT 150 YARDS FROM THE ENEMY: SHOT DOWN LIKE RABBITS. FORCES ABOUT EQUAL BUT BOERS PROTECTED. GATACRE’S MISSING RETURNING. GENERAL ADVANCE IN NATAL COMMENCED. Durban, Dec. 13. Received 14'.h, 7.5 p.m. Seven hundred have enrolled for ambulance work here.

Dec. 14. Received 15tb, 1.4 a.m. A general advance of the British on Colenso has begun.

Capetown, Dec. 13. Rteoived 14. h, 7 5 p.m. General Gatacre has abandoned Molteno. The cannonading of Magerefontein was resumed early on Monday and the infantry were engaged from noon till dark. The Boers stuck to their trenches and the British steadilv withdrew. The losses are chiefly of the Highland Brigade. On Tuesday General Methuen entranched his forces and returned a desultory cannonade. The Boer version claims that they have taken 41 prisoners. Received 15th Dec. 0 15. Colonel Umphelby (Victoria) has been attached to a howitzer division, and left Capetown for the north on Monday. General Gatacre has retired to Sterketroom. Many of his missing men have returned. The magistrate at Sterkstroom wires that the situation has slightly improved. The Boer loss at Stormberg was four killed and nine wounded. The British delivered no genuine attack; the men rushed the nearest hill without orders. Two hundred and ninety-three wounded from Modder River, including 27 officers, arrived at Orange River on Tuesday. At Magersfontein Boe.rs at tho foot of the eastern spur waited on Monday till before daybreak. The Highlanders were marching in close order of quarter column to within 200 yards of the enemy. They then commenced to extend but at 150 yards the Boers poured a terrible fire at their flankt and hundreds fell on the veldt. The Boers were shooting high, or our loss would otherwise have bean heavier. The Highlanders took refuge in a hollow, the Gordons joining them. All had fought with desperate valour to within 200 yards of the spur when repulsed. A concentrated fire of Lyddite shells was meanwhile poured with terrible effect into the enemy’s trenches, the Horse Artillery enfilading them. Later on the Boers advanced into the open, intending to make a flank attack, but the Guards and artillery prevented the movement.

Methuen commanded 11,000 men. He retired, expecting an attack on his flank and rear from Jacobsdal.

London, Dec. 14. Received 14th, 11.50 p.m. General Methuen wires that he shelled a strong position bold by the Boers on a long high kopje from four o'clock to dusk on Sunday. It rained hard all night. The Highland Biigade attacked the south end of the kopje at daybreak on Monday. The attack was properly timed but faiieda The Guards protected the Highland right and rear, and cavalry and mounted infantry attacked on the left of the Guards’ right and centre, artillery and howitzers protecting. The artillery shelled the position from daybreak. At one o’clock he sent the Gordons to support the Highland Brigade and the troops held their ground facing the enemy’s entrenchments until dark. The position extended six miles towards Modder River,

“To-day” (Tuesday) concludes Lord Methuen, “ 5 a.m,, holding my position and entrenching. Our troops faced at least 12,000, and our loss was great. General Wauchopa was killed on Monday.” Other accounts state that General Methuen used balloons to locate the enemy, and that no assistance was forthcoming from Kimberley. Received 15th, 0.15 a.m. Methuen retired to Modder River on Tuesday evening, the Boers occupying the British trenches. General Methuen wires: “I retired in perfect order here, where our forces are in security. 1 gather from prisoners.captured and from information imparted by Boers to members of the ambulances that their losses were terrible ; some corps being annihilated. The enemy, are most kind to our wounded.” The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent states that the B:itish forces on Monday vainly t ied to traverse tho enemy’s left flank between the kopjes and the river. The Marqu e if Winchester, major in tha Coldstream Guards, was killed. The Boers report that Lady Sarah Wilson has been exchanged for a Boer prisoner. Received 15th Dec. 0.25 a.m. The Times states that Methuen’s repulse is the most serious event of the war. Wauchope’s Highlanders went into a trap and were exposed, in close formation, to a magazine rifle fi.e from a force not subjected to artillery fire. Methuen will possibly retire on Orange River. The news has caused a grave sensation, and the paper demands thab 30,000 reinforcements should be sent, and the calling out of the whole available reserves, utilisation of the militia and volunteers, and sxys that further troops from Canada and the other colonies must be sought for and accepted. WITH THE REFUGEES. Through the courtesy of the recipient we are permitted to publish the following letter from a well-known Southlander, in which he narrates his observations of the great exodus from the Transvaal on the declaration of war, and the hardships, indignities, and robbery to which the luckless refugees were expised. Writing at Durham on 19th Oct., iha correspondent (from whose previous letters we have given extracts) says : —

A few lines to acquaint you of my whereabouts, and to give you a few items of news re the condition of the Transvaal when I left there a few days since to join my wife who had preceded me to Durban. I remained there until war was declared and hostilities had commenced, and as all British subjects were ordered to clear out I packed a handbag, turned the cat out to grass, locked the coor, and made tracks for Natal, after having packed all our worldly belongings into one room to save the Boers the trouble of gathering them up if they take a fancy to them. In most cases people have left their houses just as they had been living in them, and before I left many of the best houses were occupied by dirty Dutch families who were simply revelling in their new-found luxury, while refugees flying from their homes are being daily spat upon and insulted on the way. Can you wonder, then, that we who are homeless and, in many cases, penniless hate the Dutch and are nuising that hatred for the day of reckoning which I trust is not far distant 2 To make matters worse a great number of poor people have been deliberately robbed in the name ot the President while crossing the border. One gentleman I am well acquainted with bad £llO taken from him and was shot through the thigh for resisting. He was conveyed to Eass London in a viry precarious conditioo. Owing to the Johanntsburg-Natal line being commandeered by the Boers I took a ticket to Durban, via Lorenzo Marquez, through Portuguese territory, which came very much more expensive, being a land and sea journey. As no invasion will be made from that border we met but few Boers with the exception of a small commando at Komatipoort, tie border town, who confined themselves to a few insulting remarks about the “ verdoon Rooinecks,” which term, translated, is more forcible than polite. The line runs through some very rugged and picturesque scenery on the Portuguese side, and will, I believe, when things are settled, come in for a good deal of attention from English tourists and sportsmen, especially if, as is generally expected, Britain takes over Delagoa Bay, as I understand the country swarms with game. Leaving Komatipoort the line falls about a thousand feet in little more than a mile, following the crocodile river down a ragged ravine to Garcia, the first station in Portuguese territory, where we attempted to crack a mild joke with the rather good natured but sallow faced Portuguese stationmaster by asking him how he’d like to see the Union Jack flying over the station ? His answer, which came in the foimof a query, was rather more than we anticipated : “ The Union Jack : vat isdat; Sunlight soap or Beecham’s pills ?” It was more than evident from his unwashed and bilious appearance that he bad never used much of either. And now the train proceeds along low-lying malaria-laden flats, over which the deadly mists hang like a pall, until we reach Lorenzo Marqutz, where the passengers are immediately seized upon by dozens of half naked would-be porters of small parctls, who fight and rc-amble in the most undignified manner to gain possession of your luggage, altogether indifferent to the owner’s wishes or intentions.

From the time we left the Transvaal until we reached Durban there seemed to have existed a systematical and unanimous conspiracy to rob the poor refugees, who were fleeced in the most bare-faced manner at the rate of Is 6d for a bottle of sofa water, 2s for a cup of tea or coffee and, in L. Marquez,- one guinea for a bed, while a shandy commanded the astounding price of Is 6d, and which, in my case, was paid for with a solemn vow to become strictly teetotal for the remainder of my natural life, which vow was sacriligiously broken a few hours after on board the Avondale Castle, where I found they retailed English beer at sixpence a bottle. 1 had worked up such a big thirst cursing the villanous-looking rascal that nearly upset me in the bay in transit to the ship that I could noo resist the temptation. About 700 of us left Delagoa Bay for Durban, which is about 300 miles distant and usually a 24 hours run. We had a fine passage down the coast and steamed inside the Durban bar singing ” God save the Queen ” amid ringing cheers from. the hundreds who liued the pier to give a hearty welcome to the poor homeless refugees from the Transvaal. I could not help but think as I listened to the grand old Anthem how splendidly brave and loyal are Briton’s sons under the most trying circumstances ; for well I knew that many on that ship were not only homeless and friendless but, worst of all, were well nigh penniless; and I found out afterwards that many slept in the park that night with nothing but the blue vault of heaven for a covering. I am pleased to say that the relief committees are busy making provision for the deserving cases, but the stream pours in so fast that it is at first difficult to cope with. All suitable buildings are being rapidly turned into shelters, and in a little while, thanks to the noble actions of those who are so generously coming forward at this trying time, all will be cared for. Most of the able-bodied young men from the Rand are requesting to be enrolled to go to the front to have a slap at the Boers, and I assure you there is some grand fighting material among them, many already having seen active service in South Africa. As I write this, news comes of a Boer reverse at Mafeking, where it is said 400 Boers were cut up by Col. Baden-Powell s forces in splendid style—may itbe s"’. Poor Johannesburg. When I left there its condition was pitiable to behold; its once busy streets deserted and desolate ; windows and doors barricaded, while the nights were made hideous by the howls of s’awing dogs and cats. Had I remained there much longer the awful deathlike desolation would have driven me mad. I was the only white man left in the street of the suburb where I lived, and I. Jay down to sleep at night with a bar of itor handy to my reach, although I scarcely know what I had to fear.

Ths greatest confidence exists here that the Boers will get an awful cutting up as soon as operations fairly commence ; while, on the other hand, the Boers entertain the greatest contempt for the British forces, and feel equally confident of driving them into tbe sea.