THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 103, 15 June 1900, Page 3

THE WAR.

(Br iMOTiua Tkisgraph.- Copyright.] [mk rases ittoouiiox.j OPERATIONS INTHE TRANBVAAL A BOER OOMMAKDO DEFEATED. MSWB IBOM JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA. I (Received 14,10.15 a.m.) London, June 13. Lieut-General Lord Methuen has noted Commandant Da Wet at Rhenoster Elver. : Field-Marshal Lord Roberts telegraphed on Jane 12th that Pretoria and Johannesburg were quiet, and the inhabitants thankful for peace and order. . A COMBINED ATTACK BY THE « BRITISH. THE ENEMY SHOW MUCH OPPOSITION. KEY TO POSITION SECURED. Received 15,1.30 a.m. London, June 14. An official report has been received from Lord Roberts, stating that he attacked Commandant Botha on the 11th, beyond Eerste Fabrieken, just north of Pretoria. General French's, Porter's, Dickson's, and Hutton's forces enveloped the enemy's right; General Hamilton's, Broadwood's, Gordon's, Ridley's, and Brace Hamilton's assailed the left ; and General Pole Garew the centre. Much opposition was shown to the columns. General Hamilton's Infantry secured the key to the position. All the troops bivouacked on the ground won. Lieut.-Colonel the Earl of Airlic, commanding the 12th Lancers, was amongst the killed.

IN THE ORANGE RIVER COLONY. FLIGHT OF A LARGE FORCE OF REBELS. (Received 14, 11.30 p m.) London, June 14. A thousand rebels, with thirty wagons, are fleeing from Lieut.-General Sir 0. Warren, and have arrived at Kurnman. CAPE MINISTRY RESIGNS. (Received 15, 1.30 a.m.) Capetown, June 14. The Hon, W. P. Schreiner, Premier, and his entire Ministry have resigned. Their resignation has been accepted. TOTAL BRITISHJASUALTIES. RECORD TO JUNE 9th. (Received 14, 10.15 am.) London, June 13. The total British casualties in actior to 9th June were 1276 officers and 17,405 men. The total losse?, exclusive of sick and wounded in South Af.irai hospitals, 25,728.

COLONIAL CASUALTIES. DEATH OF A NEW ZEALANDER. *r (Reoaived 14, 9.15 a.m.) London, June 13. Frirate Suttie, a Victorian previously reported taken prisoner, was killed. Captain Jenkins, of Victoria, La? arrived in England invalided. Wkllisgton, June 14. Advice has been received by the Governor from General Carrington of the death of Trooper D. F. Mcintosh at Umtali on June s'.h, from dysentery. Mcintosh belonged to tho Fourth Contingent which left in the Monowai. Sir A- Milner reports that Trooper 0. F. Morgan was missing from Kroonitadt on Jnne 4th. The latter was in the Second Contingent and from Hokitika. PEACE DECLARATION PROCEEDINGS, Drarom, Jane 14. The Peace Celebration Committee are arranging to give substantial prizss for the beet trade display in the proonnwim to celebrate the conclusion of the war. School children will take part in the procession.

A BBAVE ENEMY. "I HAVE BEEN THEM DIE.* 1 I was only a prisoner in their hands for about a month, yet every moment of that time was so fraught with interest that I fancy I picked up more of the real nature of the Boers than I should have done under ordinary circumstances in a couple of years. I was moved from laager to laager along their fighting line, saw them at work with their rifles, saw them come in from more than one tough skirmish, bringing their dead and wounded with them, saw them when they had triumphed, and saw them when they had been whipped; saw them going to their farms to be welcomed by wife and children; saw them leaving home with the wife's sobs in their ears, and children's loving kisses on their lips. J saw some of these old greybeards shattered by our shells, dying grimly, with knitted brows, and fiercelyclenched jaws; *aw some of their beardless boys sobbing their souls out as the life-blood dyed the African heath. I saw tome passing over the border-line which divides life and death, with a ring of stern-browed comrades round them, leaning upon their rifles, whilst a brother or a father knelt and pressed the hand of him whose feet were on the very threshold ■ of the land beyond the shadows. I ' saw others smiling up into the faces of women —the poor, pain-drawn faces of the dying looking less haggard and worn than the anguish-stricken features of their womankind who knelt to comfort them in that last awful t-hour—in the hour which divides time from eternity, the sunlight of lusty life from the shadows of unsearchable

death. Those things I have seen, and in the ears of English men and English women, let me say, as one who kiows, and fain would speak the plain, ungilded truth concerning friend V 4 foe, that not'ilona beneath the

' British flag are heroes found. Not alone at the breasts of British matrons are brave men suckled; for, as my soul liveth, whether their cause be just or unjust, whether the right or the wrong of this war be with them—- | whether the blood of the hundreds who have fallen since the first rifle spoke defiance shall speak for or against them at the day of judgment —they at least know how to die; and when a man has given his life for the cause he believes in he is proven worthy even of his worst enemy's respeot. And it seems to me that the British nation, with its long roll of heroic deeds, wrought the whole world over, from , Africa to Iceland, can well afford to honour the splendid bravery and selfsacrifice of these rude, untutored tillers of the soil. I have seen them die.

THE WAR MEDAL. According to the London Morning Leader, the Queen will shortly have under consideration designs for the South African *var medals, and the ribbon is already being discussed at the War Office. On these occasions the patterns of the ribbons are usually drawn in water-colours, or made up on cards with narrow strips of real ribbon. These are submitted to the Queen by Lord Wols?ley, and Her Majesty makes a selection. In this judgment she usually consults the taste of the Princesses. Designs for medals are approved in the same way—from drawings submitted by the Commandsr-in-Chief. A well-known London journalist, writing to a friend in Sydney, says:— " There is going to ba a good deal of fuss about the war medal and its ribbon. The Queen and its authorities are agreed that the medal should include some figure emblematic of the Empire, but so far there has not been an agreement about the design, which may possibly be submitted to the President of the Royal Academy as an art referee. There is, however, likely to be a difference about the pattern and colours of the ribbon. The War Office has been bitten by the prevailing khaki inan'a, and wants a ribbon in which khaki at least finds a place. On the other band, it is said that the Queen wants the ribbon to be a miniature Union Jack; and a compromise may even'ually be made by adopting the Union flag with a khaki border." According to the Daily News the medal, which will be the most expensive and the most ornate issued by the War Office in recent years, is a fivepointed star with a gold centre surrounded by a ring of bronze, on which the words " South Africa " appear in raised letters. In the centre of all is i miniatuie of the Queen. The medal in the same size as the Khedival Star if 1881. The ribbon is of four colours, i stripe of khaki in the centre, two of •vhite, and one each of red and blue. There will probably be a tar granted ; or each important engagement. '