’FRISCO MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 403, 30 April 1902, Page 1

’FRISCO MAIL NEWS.

RHODES’S WARNING. (By Telegraph.) (Per R.M.S. Sierra, at Auckland.) San Francisco, April 10. The American Review of Reviews contains an article by Mr W. T. Stead, who presents a statement largely prepared by Mr Cecil Rhodes himself. It is a strange conglomeration, written in 1890, and makes a prophecy of commercial events which have come to pass during the past year or two. Mr Rhodes pleads for the organisation of a society formed after the order of the Jesuits, but having universal peace and prosperity aB its ultimate objects. It appears to be a plea for a British-American alliance, but this is more or less discounted by the advocacy of commercial war to give England rightful possession as a manufacturer for the whole world. It is maintained that if this attitude is taken, an alliance with America for universal peace and prosperity will bo possible in about one hundred years. The warning to England is sharp. It is asserted she has internal support only for six' million people, and though she has possession of one-fifth of the earth it is slipping from her without her knowledge, because the nation has not a statesman. SHARP ENGAGEMENT. A despatch from Pretom, dated April 6th, details the engagement on the night of March 31st between the Second Dragoon Guards of Colonel Lawry’s column and the Boers near Boschman’s Kop. A force of two hundred British, endeavoring to surprise a Boer laager, rode straight into a force of four hundred Boers. The night was dark, and the Boers, hidden in the drift, opened fire almost under the legs of the British horses. A fierce hand-to-hand struggle ensued. Both sides freely used the butts of their rifles. The Brilish regained the ridge they had left, and began a rearguard action. Meantime a strong force barred the road back to the British camp. Daylight enabled Colonel Lawry to see the plight the Guards were in, and he despatched reinforcements with two guns. Their assistance soon compelled the Boers to retreat. The Guards had a very hard fight,.and were ordered to retreat by squadrons. The Boers disputed every inch of the road, constantly calling “ hands up.” At each successive position taken the British appeared in diminished uumbers, for as it grew lighter tho aim of the Boers improved. Commandant Pretorius, captured the previous day in a Cape cart, was in guard of some Natal scouts, who rode into some Boers dressed in khaki, supposing them to bo British troops. The Boers opened fire, and Pretorius escaped in tho confusion. One report says he was shot as he fled. Commandant Prinsloo, serving on the British side, it is reported, fell into the Boers’ hands, and was well treated.

BOER LIBELS. A despatch dated Amsterdam, April 7, says the Boer Bureau there has published a report by General De la Roy, countersigned by Ignatius Ferriera, acting-State Attorney, in which there are numerous allegations of British atrocities, supported by affidavits, besides general accusations of placing woinen-r.as screens around British camps. De la Rey gives specific instances, with names an'd dates of the killing of wounded prisoners. He claims that, owing to Lord Methuen’s persecutions, liis own wife and six children had been wandering on the veldt for the past five years, while his mother, aged 83, was driven into Klerksdorp, after her cattle had been stolen and house burned. Vaudermerwe, late Mining Minister of the Rand, fighting under Do la Rey, appends a further list of at rocities alleged to have been committed on women and children. * A cable to Now York from the Hague states that Boer sympathisers there have little hope of an early close of the war. Boer advocates assert that Grea t Britain is fatally embarrassed by her alliance with Japan, and will certainly be drawn into a war of tremendous magnitude in the E ast. The same persons justify a continuance of tho war, and forecast the ultimate triumph of their cause when British troops cannot be spared from the larger theatre of warlike operations. FOOTBALL DISASTER.

A telegram from Glasgow oq April sfch, describing the international football contest, England v, Sootland, and the collapse of a portion of the spectators’ terraces, resulting in the death of twenty-one persons and the injury of two hundred and fifty, says that when the game began seventy thousand persons were on the ground. An immense crowd had gathered outside, being unable to obtain admittance. The crowd broke down the barriers, and swarmed upon the field. The police charged and drove the intruders back upon the terraces and seats. The railings dividing the crowds were broken, and people were thrown over each other in a frantic struggle towards tho exits. The pressure upon the upper portion of the westerly terrace was so great that one hundred feet the highest part of the structure collapsed, precipitating a mass of people to the ground, sixty feet below, where they lay injured, piled in heaps, and wedged with broken wood. The onlookers utilised portions of the broken barriers as stretchers. One hundred of the most seriously injured were carried to the pavilion, and to spaces at the rear of the stands. The police averted a panic by encouraging the impression that the accident did not amount to much. The game was played to a finish. Those in the rear of the stand will not forget the shouts of applftuso which miugled with the cries of the wounded pinioned in the debris. Seventy thousand persons were inside the enclosure, and an immense crowd gathered outside. The attempt of this crowd to get in precipitated the crash. It is believed that as the people rushed upon the reservation, the police drove them back upon the stand. This was supported by iron girders, but they were bent and twisted by the strain to which they were subjected.