CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 23 November 1899, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal.

RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY,

The second relief column on the way to Kimberley, under the command of Lieutenant-General Lord Ivlethuen, has reached the Orange river, which is within seventy-seven miles of the beleaguered garrison. In order to make better progress it is marching with light equipment.

SYDNEY LANCERS. The New South Wales Lancers, who recently arrived at the Cape, have been sent to Naauwpoort on the Capetown-Bloemfontein railway line 50 miles south of Colesberg. On arrival at their destination they met with an enthusiastic receptidh. REINFORCEMENTS. In pursuance of the plan for despatching another army division of eleven thousand men to South Africa, the Seventeeenth Lancers, five regiments of infantry, and battalions of artillery are being mobilised at Aldershot preparatory to enbarkation. Twenty-six tronsports have now arrived at Capetown bringing 27,000 men. Nine thousand infantry and 18 guns are intended for Durban, while 1000 will be landed at East London. LADYSMITH. Despatches from Ladysmith dated the 18th instant reported that the troops were all in good health. The commanding officer, Sir George White, considers that the garrison is able to hold out for another two months* MAFEKING.

News from Colonel Baden-Powell, dated the i2in instant, stated that the Mafeking garrison was safe on that date.

Commandant Cronje'ssonwas killed while leading an assault on the British position on the 7th. This attack was repulsed with great loss to the enemy, who were occupied for two hours in removing their dead and wounded from the field.

The garrison had eight of the number killed, including Captains Marsham and Peckell. There were seven wounded.

THE CAPE. An additional 4000 tfoops have arrived at Capetown. These were all entrained for the front with wonderful smoothness and celerity.

Major-General Sir William Gatacre, one of the divisional commanders of Sir Redvers Buller's army, has been placed in command of the troops at Queenstown, to .which place the British forces from Aliwal North and Stormberg lately retired,

General Sir Redvers Buller, Com-mander-in-Chief of the British armies in South Africa, has arrived at De Aar where the main trunk and eastern railways of Cape Colony join, and where the columns now marching for the relief of Kimberley were lately mobilised.

The duties hitherto imposed by the Government of Cape Colony on imported meat have been suspended.

The New South Wales Lancers have arrived at the Orange river from Naauwpoort.

The Boer casualties in the recent Belmont engagement, in which Lieut. Colonel Keith Faiconer was killed, are said to number 200.

After the flight of residents from Johannesburg a number of women looted the shops of £1000 worth of goods. The machinery of two of the closed goldmines has been wrecked. THE CAPE DUTCH. The Hon. W. P. Schreiner, Premier of Cape Colony, has announced that it is not intended to call out the Cape burgher forces to the assistance of the British. They must simply remain loyal. Sir Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner, has issued a proclamation announcing that all loyalists to the British cause who sustain losses through their allegiance to the Crown will be fully compensated.

The commando of 700 Boers which took possession of Colesberg last week besought the residents in the neighbourhood to join them and fight for independence ; otherwise, it was urged they would be always dominated by Downing street. A proclamation was issued by President Steyn, of the Orange Free. State, supporting bis appeal, but the response was lukewarm.

THE BASUTOS

Sir Godfrey Yeatman Lagden, Resident British Commissioner in Basutoland, has had several interviews with Letherodi and other native chiefs, and has succeeded in calming the tribes.

He explained to them that had they risen to arms, many of the colonial Dutch would have flocked to General Joubert's standard. The chief Malapos finds it difficult to escape from the intrigues of a Boer field cornet who has been at work among his people. The Boers have, it is understood, threatened to arrest the Basuto chiefs and also the British officials at the Residency.