CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 21 December 1899, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal. IMPORTANT CHANGES. In consequence of the recent reverses in South Africa, the military authorities have had under discussion the question of future operations. A meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet has been held and as it is considered that the position in Natal requires the .undivided. attfeHtion of General Sir Reavers Buller — who was at the outbreak of the warap pointed to the supreme command— A has been decided to appoint Fie(d Marshal Lord Roberts to be Com-mander-in-Chief of the Army in South Africa with Lord Kitchener— Sirdar o< the Egyptian forces — as Chief of Staft. The Cabinet has also decided to summon the remainder of the reserves and to despatch the Seventh Division of the Army to the Cape at once. Cavalry and artillery reinforcements have also been ordered to be prepared for transport forthwith. The artillery will include a howitzer brigade. A further resolution was arrived at in the direction of authorising General Buller to raise ' a mounted corps in Natal. Twelve militia and volunteer battalions will be allowed Jfor service outside the United Kingdom and an equivalent force of militia will be embodied for Home service, while a strong force of yeomanry* volunteers will be enrolled. The committee, has further decided to accept the colonial offers to despatch additional contingents, especially mounted men. Altogether provisions has been made by the Cabinet for securing the servics of an additional 50,000 men. The press, in commenting upon these decisions, warmly applauds the course adoptee} by the Government, . which is Regarded as q^iite adequate to cope with the situation. " The Times," in discussing the alteration made in the command of the army, of the Capiej implies that Lord Methuen — who fought the Boers at Kaffir's Kop, Grasspan, Modder River, (where he was wounded) and Magersfontein — will be superseded in the command of the First Division of the army now operating on the . western frontier by Major-General Sir Charles Warren, who arrived at Capei town a few days ago to assume command of the Fifth Division, which is ; shortly expected to arrive. The same paper also implies that . Major-General Sir W. F. Gatacre, who has been in command of ths Third i Division, now operating in Northern Cape Colony*, and was recently defeated at Stormberg, will be succeeded by Major-General Charles Tucker, whose appointment to the Seventh Division was announced yesterday. NATAL. Out of thirty-seven officers disabled in General Bitller's advance towards the Tugela river on Friday, twenty-six are severely wounded. . Among the officers wounded was ' Captain the Hon Frederick H. S. ; Roberts, of the King's Royal Rifle ] (60th Foot). Captain Roberts, who was a son of Lord Roberts ot : Candahar, has since succumbed to his wounds, which were received in a ' heroic attempt to save one of the abandoned guns. Much sympathy is felt for the father of the gallant young I officer in his bereavement. The correspondent of the " Daily [ Telegraph " states that Major-General \ Sir Francis Clery is working round the town of Weenan, a few miles to the east of Colenso, with the object of crossing the Tugela lower down, and and thus getting between Ladysmith , and the river, while General Buller I in charge of the main column of the relieving army, delays the enemy near the scene of the recent battle. MAGERSFONTEIN. Lieutenant-General Lord Methuen, whose army fell back to a camp near the Modder river after the failure of his attack on the Boer position at Magersfontein on Monday last, shelled the enemy's entrenchments and outposts for a short time on Friday. During the bombardment the British artillery dismantled one of the enemy's big guns and silenced two smaller ones, without suffering loss. It appears that at the battle of Magersfontein all of Baron Faderscwold's Scandinavian commando, numbering 85, was killed or wounded with the exception of seven, who were captured by the British. The Boer accounts of the fight acknowledge the terrible slaughter of their troops, which has been put down at over a thousand. On the night of the 13th (forty-eight hours after the battle) they were seen to be still collecting their wounded. In this desperate attempt made by the attacking regiments to storm the enemy's trenches there were hundreds of instances in which conspicuous gallantry was displayed worthy of the Victoria Cross. When the army retired from its entrenchments on the following* day the engagement, in order to take up a position on the Modder river, the troops were subjected to a terrific fire from the enemy, but the rearward movement was conducted with perfect calmness. Since the battle the Boers have received further accessions of strength and it is now estimated that Commandant Cronje is now at the head of 20,---000 burghers. Many of the enemy are massing at Jacobsdal. a few miles of the Orange ! Free State birder, owing to the bad water supply at Magersfontein. COLONIALS IN ACTION. Reports have been received from • Northern Cape Colony stating that a force of 400.9 fioers oggupy a range, gf

hills running parallel to the railway at Arundel. The New Zealanders and some of the Australian troops — who are with General Frenches cavalry in the neighbourhood — while on a night inarch, discovered about 1200 of* the enemy in one of the passes. A sharp fight ensued, ther British artillery finally compelling the enemy to seek cover. The British casualties were slight, but the Boers lost heavily. Captain Cox, of the New South Wales Lancers, had his horse shot ander him. PATRIOTIC COLONISTS. Sir John Forrest, Premier of Western Australia agrees to participate in the scheme for sending further Australian troops to South Africa. He says that if 1000 men are sent Westralia will contribute nny: Mr Lyne has cabled to the War Office offering the services of the colony's crack artillery corps—the A. Battery. Dr McCormick, the leading surgeon in Sydney, has offered his services as 1 medical officer at the front* Mr P. Ciiirrsside f he well-known Victorian squatt y<; >f Werribee Park, has jffered to give the Government all the worses that may be required for the contingent. Commander Tickell, of the Victorian Naval Corps, has offered to provide a naval contingent of sixty men, equipped with a six-pounder quickfiring gun* The Chairman of the North Queensland Meat Company, has offered the Government a donation of £1000 in cash and £500 worth of meat for the provisioning and equipment .of the Australian contingent the offer has been accepted. A telegram 1 has been received by the Premier (the Hon. Robert Philip) from the Mayor of Melbourne offering 250 horses from his Queensland station for the use of the troops for the Cape. Efforts are being made here to raise a battery of artillery. The Secoud Battalion of the "Warwickshire regiment and 100 men of the Yorkshire Regiment arrived at Capetown on Sunday. 5,000 troops =of the Sixth Division left Southampton on Saturday. The Queen remains at Windsor over < hristmas, being reluctant to leave London at the present juncture. TOTAL BRITISH LOSSES. The official report of the total British losses during the war gives :— Killed 728 Wounded 2784 Prisoners ... ... 2265 Total ... 5777 THE BOERS LOSS. The Boers losses at Magersfontein now stated to be nearly 2,000. Over 100 bodies were found thrown into the river with stones round their necks. A Boer commando from Jjtcobsdal is moving in the direction of the railway in Lord Methuen's rear. Lord Methuen has despatched troops to intercept the Boers. The enemy is reinforcing and entrenching at Stormberg. Two arrests were made in connection with General Gatacre's reverse at Stormberg. The Times states that information supplied to Lord Methuen prior to the late reverse was deliberately false. A Reuter's message announces that the Hon Winston Churchill, who escaped from Boer custody, was recaptured at Waterfalhausen. The Australian residents at Capetown are providing comforts for their countrymen in the field. THE UNITED STATES. Mr Davis, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, has gone to the Transvaal to insist on America's rights to protect British interests. ,