Buried Boer Supplies.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 235, 12 October 1901, Page 3

Buried Boer Supplies.

WHY THE ENEMY CAN CONTINUE THE AVAR.

Capetown, August 7. Tuk desperate attack made upon 400 men under Colonel Crabbe by a large number of Boers under Kruitziuger near Cvadoek is at the present juncture of considerable importance. It proves that Kruitzinger’s force is much more formidable than even the commanders of the columns chasing him had any idea. He was officially reported on July 13 as being in command of 150 men, mostly dismounted, and delicicnt of ammunition ; yet he could surround a force of 400 veterans and fire thousands of rounds of ammunition at them for a whole day.

The local farmers reported isolated bodies of Boers, but no commando of more than .30 strong, and it was this that induced Colonial Crabbe to leave his guns and his convoy and take the advice of the critics who live in London. More mobility is now the cry even in Capetown, but you can’t move transport waggons and 15pounders more than 23 miles per diem even in flat country. General French has under his command three mobile columns with light-wheeled machine guns only, and supplies carried on pack horses. These columns will move between garrisoned supply bases, and will be able to, in the sparsely-settled districts, stop out seven days. Official reports have it that there are 2700 of the enemy, of whom 1800 are rebels, under arms to-day south of the Orange River. That this number is far short of the mark the experience of Crabbo's force amply proves, for commandos are continually cropping up where they are least expected. That they have an excellent system of intelligence goes without saying, and now it is being generally recognised as true that the second invasion of the Colony was no spontaneous movement, but a well-con-ceived scheme.

Supplies of ammunition and food were buried all over the rebel districts of this colony, and only last week we unearthed one of these caches by pure accident quite close to Dordrecht. It was found to consist of tinned foods, supplies sufficient for 500 men for seven days : while the boxes of ammunition —mostly Lee-Metford, by the way—have been variously estimated at front 10.000 to 50,000 rounds. My informant said that he saw 40 eases, which would mean 40,000 cartridges. "What a mine of information, what'a tale of duped colonial officialdom, does this Boer supply nest reveal ! V, hen Hertzog's commando came south at the end of last December, what assurances did we not get that the invasion was the rash act of the despairing Boers, whose sources ofsupplies in the Free State were exhausted; that the Dutch farmers of Cape Colony, satisfied with the leniency of the Cape" Treason Bill, would not only refuse to assist the invaders, but would certainly take up arms to repel them by force ? That occurred eight mouths ago. Since that date we have killed and captured 1800 Boers and rebels south of the Orange, and yet here to-day we get intelligence of the surrounding and the almost providential escape of a force of 400 of our veterans in a district traversed by our forces certainly every four weeks for the last seven months. Where do these brigands get their supplies, their ammunition, their recruits'? It is the end of winter in this colony ; the country is bare

of supplies for man and beast. We know of the looting of ,the towns of Murraysburg, Jamestown, Van Phyusdorp, of the sacking of sundry trains, of the farm raids, of all the avenues of supplies to a desperate and cunning enemy ; dependent on these sources, the commandos could not have held out- for eight weeks, leave alone eight months. That cache at Dordrecht solves the problem—makes it all plain. When Lord Roberts relieved this colony and carried the war into the enemy’s territory, he left behind him a population ready to be tried for treason and suffer being struck off electoral rolls wherein, in six cases out of , 10, their names did not appear. They seemingly were sick q£ war, tired o£ a

hopeless struggle, but while awaiting trial they made holes in the hills and filled the holes with their reserve ammunition,, with their best guns, and with their tinned food. The day of resurrection came with the dawning of this year, and now, eight months after, we begin to understand the secret of the marvellous mobility of the Boer, the reason why he, can traverse long tracts of country depleted of all foodstuffs by our troops, and above all, why he is able to hurl tons of lead on our men, , and still is always found with his rifle and his bandolier full of cartridges. The problem now awaiting solution is, How many of these veldt depots do the enemy possess ? If this were known, some idea could be formed of the date when this miserable state of things would end ; but, alas! even our Intelligence Department are unable to hazard even a guess