THE BOER WAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 52, 27 December 1900, Page 5

THE BOER WAR.

NOTES AND POINTS OF INTEREST TO CATHOLIC READERS.

HABT'S IRISH BRIGADE. Dr. Conan Doyle, who has just published a book on the Boer War, says of Hart's Irish Brigade that no other section of Buller'a army ' held such a record. " Their rushes were the quickest their rushes were the longest, and they stayed the shortest time under cover, said a shrewd military observer. To Hart and his brigade was given the task of clearing the way to Ladysmith. VICTORIA CROSS HEROES. An analysis of the 25 Victoria Crosses which had been awarded up to the end of September aa the result of the South African campaign shows that the captains have won the lion's share of the decorations. Eight officers of this grade have been awarded the cross, and they are followed by four corporals and four sergeants. Ihree lieutenants, including Lord Roberts's son, have also achieved the cross 'for valor,' and so have two majors, one gunner one driver, one trooper, and one private. The engaeement which conferred the greatest number of decorations is Colenso, on December l&tn, tor which five crosses were awarded. CHURCH LOSSES IN ORANGE RIVER VICARIATE. n h .t ? igh * ? ev ' . Bish °P Gaughran estimates that the losses to the Catholic missions in his vicariate in consequence of the war will be about * 10,000. THE IRISHMEN OF BLOEMFONTEIN AND LORD ROBERTS. On hearing of Lord Roberts's intended departure from South Africa the Irishmen of Bloemfontein sent him an addreßs in which they said :— Your clemency and invariable kindness to the Dutch people have endeared you to the hearts of all South Africans To your correot and most Christian leniency some cynics and adVene critics have taken exception. Angels in heaven and honest hearts all the world over will, however, praiie you, and bless you for this ■ame love-inspiring mercy. If harsher measures— which God forbid —should be deemed necessary in this sorely oppressed country it is meet and fit that they should be executed by other hands than yours, thou most worthy and illustrious son of St. Patrick's Isle God chasteneth those whom He loveth," and your honored head has been sorrowfully bent here in Africa, while your noble heart was being chastened by the cruel blow which deprived you of an only son, and our Empire of a brave soldier. How grandly you have acquitted yourself, how faithfully you have carried out your most onerous duties, how honorably you have endeared yourself to •11 men of goodwill throughout Christendom will be hereafter recorded in history and is already written in our hearts ' To thig Lord Roberts replied as follows :— 'lt is with feelings of peculiar gratification that I have received from you, my countrymen of Bloemfontein, such a hearty " God speed " for Lady Roberts my daughters, and myself, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this expression of your goodwill. Truly Irish, as your letter is in its affectionate kindliness, it will alwaya be preserved in my family as a treasured possession, and as a proof that Irishmen lose none of their national, generous, and warm-hearted characteristics by being transplanted to a foreign soil, and as a proof also that Irishmen in South Africa are animated by the same devotion to Ireland as their countrymen at home, and by the same loyalty which has been lately so conspicuously displayed in our dear little fcnaerald Isle on the occasion of our beloved Sovereign's visit I value especially the appreciative manner in which you hare alluded to my services in South Africa during the war, and it will always be a source of pride and pleasure to me that I have earned the approval of my countrymen in Bloemfontein '