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Southland Times, Issue 14512, 13 December 1900, Page 2

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THE DKWETSDORT GARRISON SURKKNDKRED TO THIR.ST : THEY WERE NOT DISGRACED: BOERS SUFFERED MORE SEVERELY. MORE SNEAK-FIGHTING. GENERAL SETTLE GATHERING UP FINE FLOCKS AND HERDS. SIGN OF QUIET TIMES IN PRETORIA LORD ROBERTS ON LESSONS OF THE WAR. SIR A. MILNER TO THE AFRIKANDERS: THEY FEED THE BOERS WITH LIES. SIXTEEN MILLIONS OF WAR MONEY VOTED, PRACT.CALLY WITHOUT DISSENT. KEEPING VOLUNTEERS AND COLONIALS AT THE FRONT : IS IT JUST? London, Dec. 12. Received 13th, 12.3 a.m. Details of the rapture of the Dewctsdorp garrison show that the defenders suffered terribly from thirst, the Boers having cut the water supply, and the soldier's tongues swelled. Snipers crawled to close range ami kept up a cross-fire, 16 out of 18 of a gun detachment being killed and wounded. De Wet praised their plucky defence and Steyn admitted that the Boer losses exceeded those of the British. A strong force of Boers, under cover of a dense mist, attacked mounted infantry near Barberton on tho Bth. They were once repulsed but the latter got again to close quarters and three Briti.°h were killed, five wounded and 13 are missing. General Settle lias occupied Edenburg and captured 20,000 sheep, 700 cattle, 800 horses, many vehicles, and 3D prisoners. The families of Government officers nt Pretoria will shortly be allowed to retnrn, indicating an early termination of resistance. Received 13th, 12.37 a.m. Lord Roberts, in accepting a sword of honour at Capetown, claimed that the war had welded the Empire. Hi' complimcnti'd the admirable work of tho cohmi.il contingents, and said he was confident that the spontaneous and unanimous outburst of patriotism over the war was not ephemeral. Sir A. Milner, replying to an Afrikander deputation, agreed to forward to England the resolutions carried at the Worcester conference, though the annexation of the conquered republics was inevocablo and overwhelmingly supported throughout the Empire. He condemne.l the Congress's wild exaggerations with regard to the conduct of the war and ill-treatment of women and said that tho further resistance of tho Boers was not morally justified as the men were being fed with lies. In the House of Common's the war vote of sixteen millions passed by 284 to 8. The Hon. St. John Brourick explained that it included half a million towards expenditure in China, a million for Baden-Powell's Transvaal police, a million to repair railways damaged by the war ; the rest to go towards the cost of the war. He said the heavy expense would continue till the end of inarch and he was compelled to ask volunteers and colonials to make further sacrifices and remain at their posts, though ho hoped to release them at an early date. Sir M. Hicks- Beach proposes to raise eleven millions in February and March.