NEW AND NOTES VIA ENGLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6728, 24 February 1900, Page 4

NEW AND NOTES VIA ENGLAND.

[From Ova . Correspondent.] LONDON, Jan. 5. SPIES IN THE YEOMANRY. We are rather apt to laugh at Dr Leyds and his efforts .to move foreign Powers to intercene on behalf of the Boers, but, if we may believe the authorities who are enlisting recruits for the Imperial Yeomanry, his efforts to place a few spies among that patriotic force were very nearly crowned with success. On one diay twenty-five foreigners presented themselves as candidates for enrolment, protesting that they were naturalised Englishmen. Some spoke with a decided Scandinavian accent, the speech of others savoured of Hollands, but they all found the same difficulty in putting their hands on their naturalisation papers, and they were all told by the polite official who received them to go to —Pretoria, if they wanted to enlist. Two more plausible than the rest were actually enrolled. They said they could ride and shoot, and gave verisimilitude to a bald and unconvincing narrative by asSerting that th?y had spent most of their lives in Australia. Unfortunately, .their knowledga of English, was indifferent, while they spoke fluently a Dutch which is not to be pickefl up in the back-blocks of Australia. Before they were sworn-in, Sir George ArthuT exposed one, and the second, so it is said, was discovered at a London hate] attempting to abstract an officer's attestation papers from his bag. The authorities affirm that they have confirmation of .the fact that the pair were emissaries of Dr Leyds. If it be possible for spies to get so near enrolment in British forces in London, it can be easily understood, in South Africa, honeycombed with disloyalty, how extremely difficult it must bs for British generals to keep their movements a secret to the enemy GUN LAUGHTER/ The correspondents have been giving us some interesting particulars of the sound of thte various weapons. They agree on the " Rat-tat-tat-a-ta.t " sound produced by the Hotchkiss pumping .out bullets. Mr Churchill, referring to his own experiences when fired on by Mausers, soys " Two eoft kisses sucked ths air." The '' Times " correspondent talks of " the silky breath a.nd the silky whistling o f the Mauser bullet," "the burr of the Martini-Henry" and "the siren-like drone of the ricochet." CHRISTMAS AT MODDER. Despite the heat and the hail of bullets experienced at the Modder the 9th Lancers are bubbling over with fun. This is the Christmas message they send their friends through the "Telegraph":— "We drank your health at Christmas. Our stay in this charming watering place is pleasing to the flips and inhabitants. Both bleed us freely. We are living on the best of sand, washed down by Chateau Modder. We only regret you are uot here to share it." But they have not a monopoly of humour. The Boers, so a Reuter's special informs us, have giren'Mr Rhrdes a Roland for his Oliver by firing two plugged shells into Ladysmith with " the compliments ci the season " printed on them and containing plum pudding. I don't know whether the phrase " What ho ! she bumps " has reached you yet. It is an expression in common use in our l streets just now, and derives its origin from an inane music-hall Ji:ng, in which an excited passenger when the ship struck the rocks " caught hold of the captain's trousers, and cried ' What ho ! she bumps !' " It is seldom used with any relevance, but was distinctly apropos in the capture of the armoured train at Estcourt. The Boers were all around, the engine was upsetting and the cars jolting over the sleep?rs, but " Tommy" undismayed greeted the disaster with a cheery "What ho! she bumps." WHO IS KILBY? • | Who is Kilby, what is he, that Pall Mall clubs ignore him? is what we were asking I ourselves at the beginning .of the week when J a mysterious cable came along that General ' Kilby was a prisoner in Pretoria." but safe, i No one knew of any such general, and the ! War Office solemnly searched their lists without avail. But a Plymouth correspondent spread the glad tidings that the general is the commander of the Salvation Army in South Africa. " Not Jost, but gone befcre" both his own and the ether army, let us hope. HELIOGRAPHIC HUMOUR, The Boers often try to intercept heliographic dispatches from Buller to White. On one occasion it became evident to the young officer who was signalling, that jt was brother Boer and not brother Briton at the other end of the little ray of sun-

shine, whereupon the following crisp dia* logue ensued : — ■ N. : Who are you? Boers : The Royal Irish fusiliers. N. : What ib the number of your regfc B. : I'm Corporal Stevens, 18th Hussars. N.: What are you doing? B. : Ladysmith was taken last might; 1 escaped. , „ N. : You are Boers, arent you? B. : Yes, and you're English. Where U Buller? „ l _ . „ N. : I don't know. Where is Joubert? B. : He has gone to Pretoria, with Gene* ral White as prisoner. N. : How is old Kruger? B. : AH right, thank you. I N. : Why won't you wait for tisr We have plenty of cold steel for you, and ou* 100 rounds are getting rather heavy. God i help you if you do. B. : Yes, he is sure to. Part of the "Ladysmith Lyre" has beeal reproduced in a London journal* Its pros-* pectus states that it is published to sUppW a long-felt want, and says that "what you want in a besieged town is news which you can absolutely rely on as fake." Only one quarter column is reserved for true new* if any should " unavoidably creep in." The" quarter column, however, which at Magerafontein proved a disastrous formation^ te* mains blank. The " Personal Column " begins with the following advertisement : — " Piet,— Return home at once. Everything forgiven.— > Paul." Under "Exchange and Mart," at collector advertises for stamps bearing the Ladysmith postmark, and offers in exchange his large and valuable collection of shells; which include " perfect examples of Long Tom, Pompom, etc." "STILL KICKING." A graphio letter from a Gordon Highlander shows the typical determination ©I our men to fight to the last gasp, and the narrow shaves some of the lucky ones had. At EUvndslaagte, he says, "I got through the rifle fire down to tne bayonet charge on the hill-side, when I felt a sting in! the left arm, and, looking down, found I was shot in the wrist. In changing my position I got shot in the centre of thai forehead. The bullet did .not go straight through. It glanced off my nose-bone, and came out above my right temple. . . . On looking round I was just in. time to Seel the blood squirb from the first wound. I shifted my position in quick time, for I did not want another from the same rifle. I lay still after doing this for a> while, when! the thought came to me to get my >wristi bandaged, and try to shoot again. Oft changing my position I got a bullet right! in the 'napper. 1 I was out of action, then, for all was dark. I heard the officer I was going to to get the bandages fromi say 'Poor chap, he's gone !' But no, lam still kicking." "THE LUCKIEST BEGGAR." A sergeant in the Coldstreams at Moddetf River also had some luck. He writes:—* " During the afternoon somfeone seemed to have spotted me from the trenches. Firsti a shot struck the side of my boot and struck my rifle just in front of my face, filling my eyes with dirt and splinters. I rose up & little, when another shot struck the middle finger of my left hand. I had got on. my knees when a bullet struck me fair in the chest on the buckle of my haversack, breaking it through the centre and causing ai slight puncture of the skin and bruising my chest. Have been congratulated as being the luckiest 'beggar in my battalion." Lord Lovat, with the sanction of the War Office and the co-operation of Highland proprietors, is forming a corps of 150 gillies for South Africa. The young Highlanders, who. will be deer-stalkers, s'hepllerds and hillmen,are to take their own ponies, and as they are accustomed to hill work and the use of the telescope, and in -addition hav6 an extensive range of vision, it is predicted that the corps, which is to be attached to the Black Watch, and accGmpanied by Lord Lovat himself, should be serviceable for scouting purposes in South Africa. It is always well to encourage enthusiasm, but I cannot, help thinking that the amount spent | by the Highlanders in equipping the corps would be laid out to more advantage in fitting out the same number of British-born African volunteers of the same stamp as Rimington's Scouts, who are inured to the climate, know the country, the Boer tactics, and the Boer language,* and have Basuto ponies as active and hardy as themselves. A DUTCH BOYS VIEW. The Dutch schoolboy seems as impregnated with the maxim " Trust in G6d and keep your powder dry" as his elders, if one may judge from a sample letter in the "Times." Thus writes the lad to his parents : — " The rooineks say Buller will take the Transvaal, bub I hope God will make this wicked plan of the rooineks fruitless. The injustice done us by the God-for-saken men is great, but God will strike. I see in the newspaper that the severe fever is among the troops. Now, we read in fhe Bible that God defended his people from the fiends in the time of the pestilence, bo it is another punishment amongst them."