TOMMY ATKINS'S LETTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 90, 12 April 1900, Page 3

TOMMY ATKINS'S LETTERS.

WHAT LOW-CLASS BOERS DO. An officer of the Inniekillings, describing the Colenso battle, says: "la this action the low-class Boers robbed and stripped the killed, and even cut off an officer's finger to get a ring. The better-class Boer is quite chivalrous, but, being in the minority, he has no control over the mass, and there is really no discipline among them. The heat was terrific, and what with the sweat and dust we looked like niggers after fourteen hours' marching and fighting." TOO 'CUTE FOR THE BOERS. A Soots Guardsman relates the method adopted by two Highlanders to •scape capture after Magersfontein: " Two men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders went out towards the Boer trenches on the morning after Magersfontein. When about 400 yards from the trencheß they came acroes a wounded officer of theirs (Graham. I think), and were in the act of putting him into a blanket in lieu of a stretcher when two mounted Boers rode up to them and told them in broken English that they were 'prisraairs of war.* Colonel Cronje say so. He want you on the hill,' ' We can't leave our officer,' they said. 'He prisonair, too; come along.' So along they went, leaving the officer lying there. When about 150 yards from the trenches the Boers galloped to the front, thinking-the two Highlanders were coming on.- Instead of doing so, however, they lay down behind a bush When they saw the4soers far enough off, and commenced groaning and crying for water. Presently up came another party of Boers, who knew nothing of the recent affair. ♦Are you wounded?' they asked. * Yes,' replied the Highlanders. ' Take S drink of water,'said one of.the Boers, • and lie down, so you v. i)l not get shot.' With this the Boers galloped off. When all was clear the Highlanders rose, and I one leaned on the other, groaning, and making enough noise to wake the dead. In this manner they managed to escape to our lines." AN IRISH RETORT. A corporal in the Scots Fusiliers Bays: "Just before the battle the Irith Brigade (Boers' side) sent a note to our Dublin Fusiliers saying they would be glad to get the opportunity to wipe them (the Dublin Fusiliers) off the face of the earth; but the note was returned by the Dublins to say they would walk through the Irish Brigade as the devil did through Athlone." DRUMMER IN THE THICK OF IT. Drummer W. J. Hobson, Ist Battalion Scots Guards, writing from Modder River, says: " I have been in four big battles now, and pulled through safe and sound. I had two very narrow escapes at Belmont. I had my drum hit by a bullet, and at Modder River my sword scabbard end and my helmet were both shattered by fragments of a Boer shell. Their shells are made of very poor stuff, as it is only about one in ten that bursts with any effect." NICKNAMED THE "CORPSE." . An Argyll and Sutherland Highlander writes that after the battle of Magersfontein ho went to a well two miles off for a drink of water. The next thing he knew he was in the hospital, and meinwhile he had been n-ported as " missing," so that when he r< join* d his comrades he was laughingly called " a corpse," BETWEEN TWO FIRES. Sergeant G. Atkinson, of the Protectorate Regiment, now with Colonel Baden-Powell at Mafeking: " I have just escaped from the jaws of death by as close a shave as one could possibly iiave. Four of us were out watering our horses—always a risky venture, for Boer snipers keep on the look-out for us. On this day, however, the danger came from our own sharp-shooters. They mistook uk fcr Boers, and poured such a terrible hail of fire into us that killed off the horses and made us fall flat on our stomachs. We wormed our way along tie ground to a Email reeky lise surr< uoded by bushe", and here two of us ventured to rise. The Boers on the j other tide saw us and fired, so we drop-1 ped down again. When tho Boers fired our own, evidently puzzled, left off, but j we dare not get up again, for bullets whizzed over and around us for an hour, and actually chipped oil' rock on my face. We were ,so close to the Boers that we could hear their shouts and laughter, but they dare not come towards us for fear of our own sharpshooters. Trust a Boer for coming into the open. Eventually, under cover , of dusk, we crept back to the British lines, fortunately more alarmed than! hurt." . j