SOUTH AFRICAN REBELS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2307, 14 November 1914, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICAN REBELS

SEVERAL ENGAGEMENTS Reported SEVERE LOSS INFIJCTS) — ——■ \ The_ Prime Minister has received the' following message from the High Commissioner, dated London, November 12:. Official.—Tho Governon-General o£' South Africa reports under date of November 9, as follows:—Yesterday wei drove the enemy from Weltevrenden over Zaiidfontein in the direction o£ Reitfontein and took a portion of . their laager. At Zandfontein, thirty.--miles west of Warmbaths, in the Northern Transvaal, about 120 of the enemy were killed or wounded and 25 captured. Tha loss on our side was 12 killed, 11 wounded and three slightly wounded. The officers and men conducted themselves very bravely. • The left wing was' held by Commandant Jones, and tha right by Commandant Geyser. ActingCommandant Botha Hofman, although; wounded, led his men : throughout tha engagement. The officers and men kill-, cd were, with, few exceptions, 6hot with dum-dum bullets and suffered frightful wounds. This rebel commando is supposed to bo under Jack I'iemaa-r, an ex-major of the Permanent Force Staff. " ~ ~ u ~'' A sharp engagement ocourred outside Kronstad on the main railway between Bloemfontein and Pretoria- on November 6. The rebels were in' strength! and had been gathering around Kronstad_ with the evident intention of attacking the town. On November 5 patrols approached and fired on our outposts' - at Kronstad, and Colonel Manie Botha teok 200 men and attacked rebels twelve miles out. The result was that one rebel was killed, seven. wounded, and seven were taken prisoners. Our.' losses were two wounded. The rebels, 400 strong, charged right through'-the ranks, but , withdrew before tie arrival of our reinforcements. 1

Colonel Botha reports that he chased the rebels under Meyer and Celliers, 30 miles south-west of Kronstad until his horses gave in. He captured ten rebels, amongst them was Hendrik Serfontein, a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly. The rebels' losses are unknown. Three of Colonel Botha's men were wounded. . '.. A small ' patrol of"'South African Mounted Rifles came under fire from a. force of Germans in khaki between Nabob and TJpington, on the Orange River towards the Gennaii border, on November 7.

A. squad of the Natal Light House on the previous day. had a brush with a small roving band, under the rebel leader Stabler. This took place at Marais Vlei, where the enemy attempted to hold a bridge, upon which our men advanced across open country without cover and succeeded in dislodging them.The rebels hastily retreated in the di* rection of Schuitdrift. '

TERMS OF THE AMNESTY'. Cape Town, November 12. The amnesty offered the rebels pro'< mises not to prosecute surrenderors under the criminal law, but to allow them to return to their homes.:'"J- ■■ The amnesty -willnot' extend to'.'those, guilty of breaches of the rules of civilised warfare. MARITZ'S RELATIVES DISOWN ; . HIM. Pretoria, November 12. Six Maritzes, all relatives of the rebel leader, are now serving with the Government forces. They have published an appeal in the "Volkstem" to tho Maritz family to shed their blood m order to wipe out the stigma on, theifr name.