CABLE NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 March 1922, Page 3

CABLE NEWS.

CIVIL WAR.

AVSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION

A HOT ENGAGEMENT. This Hay at 11.30 a.m.) CAPETOWN, March 15.

Jeppes township in the Central area was the scene of a hot engagement on Sunday between the Imperial Light Horse and revolutionaries. The Red sharpshooters kept up steady fire on the troops from behind barricades, and sniping from windows and balconies. Considerable street fighting followed and the rebels sustained material losses.

REPORTED MURDERED. CAPETOWN, March 14

It is reported that four captured policemen were murdered in cold blood at Fordsburg and others threatened with the same fate, but a member of the Red Cross belonging to the revolutionary force intervened and his impassioned address saved their lives.

THE REDS IN FOROE CAPETOWN Mar. 14.

It is estimated that 2,500 Reds, five hundred of whom are armed with rifles and others with shot guns, revolvers and bombs, are in Fordsburg area.

MACHINE GUNS FOUND. CAPETOWN, March 14. Two German machine guns of the 1918 pattern, were discovered in the area yesterday.

FINE WORK DONE(.Received This Day at 11.30 a.m.) CAPETOWN, March 14

Fine work against the Reds was done by a squadron of four armoured trains manned by the Railway Rill" Corps who inflicted severe losses at several points /

A RED IRISHMAN. CAPETOWN, March 4. The leader of the Brakpau Reds is stated to be an Irishman named Ainsworth with considerable military ex-

perience. The 'Leader of the Benoni group is Rantenbach who earned a reputarioi for heroic rescue work on the mines.

THE rebellion broken. •Received This Day at 11.30 a.m.) CAPETOWN, March 11. The Capes Times Johannesburg correspondent telegraphs that the back of the rebellion is broken The revolutiorary forces a r e disorganised and the principal leaders have flei. Com man dant 'Erasmus is said to be wounded, and the rebels are short of munitions and other supplies. The majority arc anxious to surrender and are only holding out because the .bitter enders have threatened to shoot deserters ««<1 because the leaders have spread a report that all rebels captured by troops would be court niartialled and shot. Prisoners captured will be tried by special court.

THE NATIVES SATISFIED. CAPETOWN, March 14

Crowds of natives watched the bomt bardment of Vrededorp and Brixton, and expressed' the satisfaction that Government punished the men Responsible for the recent murders.

STRIKERS DISGUSTED

(Received This Day at 1.5 p.m.)

CAPETOWN, March 15

Even some strikers are indignant at the disclosures of captured documents showing the revolution had long been planned, supported by money / from abroad.

A large number of arrests wore made yesterday on charges ranging from spreading false information to high treason. The majority of the prisoners are miners, hut many are of the .qunsi-professional class including Irish, Dutch, Germans, Russians, Greeks, Poles.

FURTHER DETAILS. CAPETOWN, March 14

Details of the attack on Fordsburg show tnat at eleven o’clock the gun signalled the commencement of the infantry advanced and the police guns on Brixton Ridge opened fire. Three minutes later the Durban Light Infantry linked up near the cemetery. After a brief lull the guns bombarded the trenches in Market Square nnd then the advance was resumed.

Reinforcements brought in by motor cars swelled the ranks of the attackers who by 11.45 a.m. had occupied some of. Fordsburg houses, and continued to press forward. At noon the White ling "'as hoisted and firing ceased and tlm battle appeared eve- rn the nc thern side of the town, hut intermittent rifle fire continued in the vicinity of the Railway station.

This was only a flash > n the pan. The town was virtually captured shortly after noon.