Letters from “ Our Boys ” at the Front.

Temuka Leader, Issue 3814, 5 November 1901, Page 2

Letters from “ Our Boys ” at the Front.

Lance Corporal Webb, of the 7th Con tingont, writes a lengthy letter to his brother from Mereyton on the 2nd Sep teraber, and the following extracts have be>'n T-daccd at our disposal: I suppose you know by this time we are having plenty of fight every d y, but the Boers have not got into any of us Temuka lads yet. We have had the bullets near enough to us all the same, as close as 1 want them anyhow. There have been nine men killed in our Contingent and about 30 wounded. A good few of our lads have also been captured. '••Vhon the Boers catch them they take everything from them, strip them naked, give them a kick, and then let them go. The Boers are getting very hard p now. We have caught them with coats made of sheep and goat skins and pants made out of blankets and sacks. The women are just as bad, you see them without boots or socks. We have been giving the Boers particulars since we have been after them ; we are rousing them all over the shop. If we do not catch them, we generally drive them into another column. The South African papers give our contingent gie-.t praise for the work we have b°en doing Out of 78 columns we were top aawyerfor last mouth’s captures We captured 51 men, 84 waggons, 10,000 sheep, 370 U cattle, 2!)2 horses, 50 rifles, 13,000 rounds of small ammunition, 32 Cape carts, 70 tom horse feed, 610 women, and 460 Kaffirs. I would like the life all lighi, but wo don’t get enough tucker, and we are half the time marching at night, so we don’t get much sleep either. 3ut that is the time we get at the Boers. ! his general of ours (General Garrett) is a terror to fight. Lie gives us no rest at all. The 6th Contingent have seen very little fighting. They have only had two men killed. I saw Jim Scott when we first landed, but none of the other lads. Jim was looking very well. South Afiica is not a bad place after all. It is a bit rough in some places, but that is nothing. We had a bit of a scrap with De La Rey the other day. We Ist two men, another got his arm shot off, and some more wounded We caught 25 Boers and shot a few, but 1 don’t know how many.”