WAR ITEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3274, 29 May 1900, Page 3

WAR ITEMS.

ALBREOTT ON THE WAR. The Times correspondent at Bloemfontein writes as follows : — Colonel Albrecht, the German officer who has been responsible for so much of the Tranßvaal strategy, when taken prisoner, expressed himself at a luncheon party very openly on the situation, and gave the following Impressions which he had formed of the British arms. Speaking of the engagement at Enslin (Graspan), he said : — You did conceal nothing. * We held two lines running at right angles to each other. You did send one brigade to make a frontal attack, and two brigades to attack the flank. We saw all this. We left just sufficient men to contain your feint, and for the rest we galloped across to the kopjes at right angles to the front. Your attack then became a frontal attack. It was all very simple. Your infantry is splendid. It will advance where no one else m the world will advance. It is better than our German infantry. But your cavalry ! VVe can see. We see a bush with a pole sticking up behind it, and we say there is the cavalry. And they always go home at night to their bivouac. That is no good we can see. Twice did I give up two of our guns for lost. We did hide them m a donga. But your cavalry did go home. They are no good. Your artillery is splendid. They come out intheopen,they don't mlnd,but they do give me a splendid target with their umbers. They have discipline, they do not mind. Your mounted infantry is nothing. They are good infantry, but why put good infantry on horses ? They are lost, they see nothing, they are all the time holding on their hats. Cronje is no soldier. When we did see the English did do nothing m front of us, but that the camp did grow and grow, I did say to Cronje, •• What will you do, they will turn your flank ? " He answered, "The English cannot leave the railway— l will stay." Then we did Bee the cavalry moving into -the Free State. Then I did say, "Cronje, they i will turn your flank, what will you do P" He answered, "The English infantry cannot leave the railway— l will stay!" Then we did see the infantry no more. They were gone. We did not know. Then I did say to Cronje, "They will turn your flank, what will you do?" He said, •' I will go. " Then we went. I did see that with all the wagons the English would catch as. I said, "Cronje, you must go quickly." He said, "1 cannot go more quickly with my wagons." Then Cronje makes answer that he will not leave his wagons. He is no aoldier. The Boer is no good. He has no discipline. It is all right if they are placed on a kopje with their commandant. There they will die. But if yon say to half a commando, " Now you come here," they will all be gone. All to their farms. They are no soldiers. They have not the discipline. PECULIAR CORRESPONDENCE, KRUGER SWAPPING TEXTS. Laffan's Chicago correspondent, writIng on March 21st, says :— The President of the Transvaal has been conducting* unique species o! correspondence by mall and cable with a Mr J. A. Smyth, of this city, who, on October 10th, 1899, addressed the following letter to Mr Krager:—

i My Dear Sir, — Aa an American, a resi , dent of Chicago, and a lover of justice I and fair play, I solicit from you a justi • fication of your present attitude towarc , Englaud and the Outlanders of your na i tion. You must have a definite reasor , for your position of resistance and op> ; presßion, and if you are m the right] wG^ld be pleased to know It from your own pen. President Kruger sent the following answer by cable on November 7th.: — " Honourable Sir,— Psalm 35, verses 11 and 12, and 19 and 20.— Respectfully, Kruger, President. Smyth cabled back:— First Timothy, 2, verses 1 and 2, President Kruger rejoining with "Zachariah ix., 8." To this Smyth replied by mail, quoting Ezekiel xxxii,, 2-6, and the return mail brought from Mr Kruger a reference to 8t Matthew vi., 34. Mr Smyth cabled back " Hosea x., 13." Up to this time each had prepaid his own messages. Now Mr Kruger's reply was sent "collect," and the Chicagoan was referred to Jeremiah xviii., 20-23 "Isaiah li., 19," was Smyth's next cable, and Mr Kruger by cable referred him to Job xx*ix.,l-2. Mr Smyth cabled back " Psalms ii., 1." The next message from Oom Paul was Psalms Ixix., 1-3 : and Smyth's reply was "Job xv., 31." The President now called his correspondent's attention to Ecelesiastes iii., 1-8 ; Smyth rejoining with Ecclesiastes iv.,6. Oom Paul now sent another message " collect," referring Mr Smyth to Nahum i., 15. Mr Smyth's answer to this elicited no reply, and so brought this strange correspondence to a clO3e. Parry's, where the British vanguard crossed the Vaal last Thursday, is only 60 miles, by air line, from Johannesburg. Two privates of the Middlesex regiment, named Murphy aud Humphreys, each lost a leg at Spion Kop, Humphreys the left and his comrade the right. Mutual sympathy made them -fast friends, and, studying economy, they used one pair of boots between them. Commodore Penfold, one of the directors of De Beers, tells the amusing story of his expulsion from Modder River, whither he had journeyed from Cape Town, hoping to be able to enter Kimberley with Lord Methuen's column. He had waited with more or less patience for a month or bo, and one evening, when Lord Methuen asked him what he thought of the state of affairs, replied, " You see, my lord, I can hardly tell.gff belong to the Navy, and you Army men fight so entirely by books that it is difficult for me to know what to think." The following morning he was informed that his departure to Cape Town would take place by the next train ! He went, but arrived m Kimberley from Cape Town by the same train on which Lord Methuen came from Magersfontein. Little children full of health Do love to laugh and play, And many a man would give his wealth To be as bright as they. Though illness may attend us all, A a we become mature, Yet coughs and colds will surely fall 'Fore Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. ,