THE BOER WAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 15, 12 April 1900, Page 27

THE BOER WAR.

NOTES AND POINTS OF INTEREST TO CATHOLIC READERS.

THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. The Duke of Norfolk has resigned the Postmaster-Generalship of the United Kingdom, and has volunteered for the front. OFFICEBS KILLED. A London newspaper ha 3 compiled a list of British officers killed during the war, and classed them according to parentage m follows :—: — Sons of Peers ... ... 8 „ Baronets ... ... 6 „ MP.'s ... ... l „ Judges ... ... i „ Squireß ... ... 19 „ Army officers ... ... 27 „ Naval officers ... ... 6 „ Clergymen ... ... 3 „ Widows ... ... 8 „ Doctors or lawyers ... 5 „- Merchants ... ... 3 This is, of course, by no means a complete list, and does not include those who fell since General Buller's third attempt to crou the Tugela river. TEOUBLK IN STOBE FOE THE BOEBB. The Birmingham Daily Mail tells of the departure of one of the reservists for the front, showing the sublime confidence which %■ British soldier's wife has in the prowess of her spouse. As her husband left in the train from Snow Hill Station a woman was to be seen weeping bitterly. Full of sympathy, a bystander tried to speak words of comfort to the grief -stricken wife, when he was met with the following answer : 'Oh, it ain't 'im I'm troubling about; it's them poor Boers I'm a-thinkin' of. Bill's such a terror when *c starts.' CATHOLIC OFFICERS AT THE FBOKT. The call to arms (pays the London Tablet) has been nobly responded to by the nation, and serving in the troops of Yeomanry which have just left or are about to leave for the front are many who belong to well known Catholic families. Thus of Mr. FitzHerbert of Swynnerton's sons, two, Mr. Basil and Thomas FiteHeibert, have already sailed, and M. Cyril Selby, brother of Mr. Selby, of Bidelestone, follows in a few dajß. With the North Devon Hussars goes Mr. M. de Las Casas. We note that Mr. Chicester, now in Africa with the second Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, has been gazetted Captain. A PREMATURE OBITUARY NOTICE. We (London Tablet, February 10) last week printed the following notice which appeared in the obituary columns of the daily papers : • M % Lachlan — On Christmas Day, shot in the Market square, Harrisrnith, Orange Free State, for refusing to fight against his own countrymen, John M'Lachlan, jun., aged 30, eldest Bon of John M'Lachlan, of Wandsworth, and grandson of the late John M'Lachlan, of Lambeth.' This notice has since been the subject of questions in Parliament, in reply to which Mr. Chamberlain stated that the Governor of Natal said that the report which had appeared in the local papers some time before had been contradicted. The Governor had no knowlede of any foundation for the report or on what authority the contradiction of it was based. He was, however, trying to obtain information from Harrismith refugees in Natal, if any could be found. THE ALLEGED IRISH BRIGADE. Ajtropos of Irishmen who are alleged to be enemies of England, a Ladysmith letter in the London Daily Chronicle cays that the writer had met with Major Eincaid, who had been a prisoner with the Boers, and had been exchanged. ' Major Eincaid,' he said, ' had seen a good deal of the so-called Colonel Blake and the 80-called Irish Brigade. There was not a single Irishman among them. Blake, an American, had come out for the adventure, just as he went to the Chili war.' THE PREMIER OF CAPE COLONY. Mt. Schreiner, the present Premier of the Cape Colony, graduated at the University of Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Downing College, and on at least one occasion rowed No. 7 in a Downing boat. He won an exhibition at the South African College before proceeding to Cambridge. His father was German, his mother English. HOW DESPATCHES ABE CABBIED. Mr. W. Cumming, of Douglas, who has been in and out of Kimberley during the siege with despatches from Mr. Rhodes, is perhaps one of the most daring and successful. On one occasion he crept for the best part of thirty miles on his hands and knees with despatches, so as to escapa observation, through a country swarming with Boers. We understand that the enemy had set a price of £300 on his head. A native runner between Kuruman and Mafeking was taking a squill despatch through and was caught by the Boers They searched him from top to toe and let him go, having found nothing. The wily native had rammed the precious despatch up his nose. A young Scotchman who was also engaged on this dangerous work met a commando while his pocket was stuffed full of important despatches. He had wisely wrapped the papers up in a tablenapkin, and they bore the semblance of 'lunch.' When stopped and asked to show- what he had in his pocket be quickly said : ' Oh,

I've nothing here except a few Bandwiches (lugging out the packet) ; will you have one 1 Aud (diving his hand into the other pocket) here's a hard-boiled egg, you can have that ?' Ho got safely off by this ruse. BUGLER DUNN AT COURT. The Press Association correspondent at Cowes says little Bugler Dunn. Ist Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who so distinguished himself in the firing line et the Tug^la River and was wounded in the arm on February 19, in obedience to the Queen's command, was conducted to the palace at Osborne by Lieutenant Knox to sec her Majesty. Dunn, as he landed at Cowes pier at 20 minutes to 10, was the object of much attention to the crowds of ptuplu, \\h i oheered him as he was driven away in a carriage to the palace, lie was wearing a military coat over the khaki uniform he bad on while in action. On arrival at the palace several lad if* got him to inscribe his name in their birthday-books, and one more impulsive than the rest kissed him. On being conducted to the Queen's apartment he bore himself coolly but modestly, and humbly saluted and bowed before the Queen, who smiled upon him graciously and questioned him as to his experiences, and sympathetically inquired after the state of his wound. She was pleased to accept a portrait of the Bugler, and in addition presented him with a new copper bugle, with silver mountings, and bearing the following inscription :— ' Presented to John Francis Dunn, Ist Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, by Queen Victoria, to replace the bugle lost by him on the field of battle at Colenso, 15th December, 1899, where he was wounded.' Dunn, who had little expected this, left the apartment highly gratified and evidently more than ever willing to return to the front. Throughout the whole proceedings Dunn's demeanor was demure and self-possessed, and it is evident public attention is not spoiling him. THE IRISH REGIMENTS. The following pathetic verßes, written by an officer's wife, an Irish lady, who writes under the novi de plume of ' Russell Gray,' have appeared in the Morning Pott : — One of the Royal Irish Furilicrt who fell at the Battle of Glencoe> October 20, 1899. They gave him a doublet of scarlet, And a rifle to hold in his hand, And they bade him strike for his Sovereign, And fight for his native land. They came — and they ' 'listed ' my darling, And the Mother of Sorrows above Can feel for the heart of a mother, For she knows how the Irish can love. The challenge of England has summoned Her sister the Emerald Isle, And brothers-in-arms are their children Now mustering, file upon file. They gave me the paper that told it, And I read with my tear-dimming sight, While it spoke of the glory of battle, And told how the Irish can fight. But the voice of the bugle that called him. And the song of the slumbering deep, Have killed the young heart in his bosom, And hushed my poor darling to sleep. He is there — in the list of the slaughtered, But they tell me I mustn't cry, For he fell, where the battle was thickest, To prove how the Irish can die. LORENZO MAHQUEZ. Twelve months ago few people indeed knew the whereabouts of Lorenzo Marquez. It might have been in South America o r Japan for aught 95 per cent of the people of New Zealand knew. It has attained a notoriety out of all proportion to its size or population within the past few months. It is a little seaport on the

east coast of Africa, and is the principal town in that large slioe of Africa owned by Portugal. It is connected by railway with the capital of the Transvaal, and consequently had been used by the Boers for the importation of munitions of war, which it was not desirable should pass through British territory, and be subject to the curiosity of British officials. It has a population of just over 5000. Half of this number are Araba, Coolies, Banyans, Mussulmans, Parses?, and other Indian traders. They own the principal stores, having several bank«, and, what is more, control the Portuguese money in exchange, in ita wonderful rises and falls. The Chiiießb form an important s-cction, commanding moot retail shops, owning a great deal of property in the town, and hundreds of them working an carpeuUr.-, and builders. Germans, Frenoh, Dntoh, end Portuguese do most of the imporfctug and wholesale trade ; they are the holders of innumerable trading concessions and other rights, all of which make it almost impossible, and certainly unprofitable, for the British merchant to chip in.