CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS,

Manawatu Herald, 25 January 1900, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS,

♦— The Transvaal. ■na.mrm March on ladysmithFurther news with regard to the operations of the relieving army in Natal states that Sir Charles Warren, supported by field artillery directed an attack on a strong force of the enemy which occupied the northern ridge on Spionkop. The Boers replied with machine gun and rifle fire. The fight was kept up until dusk, the British infantry firing at long range. Meanwhile a demonstration was made on the enemy's front, during which their trenches were shelled hy the Naval Brigade, with admirable effect, the Boer guns being silenced. . In the evening a forward movement was made, the infantry occupying an excellent advanced position. On Sunday General Warren found that his column was again confronted by strong entrenchments. The bombardment was accordingly re-opened, and eventually three more positions were captured, the Lancashire Begiment and the Irish Brigade steadily advancing, in the face of the enemy's fire. General Buller has cabled to the War Office that Warren's Brigade was engaged during the whole, of Sunday, chiefly with his left flank, which eventually swung forward a couple of miles over difficult ground. Though the fighting has been all uphill, substantial progress has been made. The wosk of turning the main position of General Joubert's army has successfully begun. , The extreme right of the enemy was to the east of Acton Homes, upon a ridge four miles north-west of Trichart's drift. General Warren, with the principal column, in co-operation with General Clery operated on Saturday in a locality near where the Oliverstock-Ladysmith road crosses Venter's Spruit. During Generals Warren's turning movements the Boers on the western slopes Spionkop were engaged on their right and rear, and were driven to the higher crests of the hills, where their defences are semi-circular in form, and consist of stone sangars. The York and Lancaster Begiments and the Lancashire Fusiliers, while advancing on the left wing along uneven spurs, entered this semi-circle under a heavy fire from three directions. . " Taking advantage of all the available cover, they reached within 500 yards of the enemy's right wing. The burghers' artillery fire was periodically silenced by massed batteries of British field guns. During the night the enemy's right wing evacuated portion of their positions. MAFEKING STILL SAFE. Beports from Colonel BadenPowell indicate that Mafeking was safe on the 10th instant. The garrison were then cheerful and were stated to be in possession of food supplies which would last till April. GENEBAL FBENCH. General French has occupied a i new camp, eight miles east of Ingersfontein. The artillery under General French has commenced bombarding Colesberg with lyddite shells. Excellent practice is being made, the shells falling with great precision. The strength of the enemy in and around the town is estimated at seven thousand. PONTOON BBIDGE. The pontoon bridge by which Lieut.-General Warren's column crossed the Tugela, though it is eighty-five yards in length, was laid d(_wn by the British engineers within two hours. Thie is the best time on record for a work of the kind. SATURDAY'S FIGHT. Further news concerning the advance of the Ladysmith relieving army shows that by swinging his column round, and occupying the points of vantage on Spionkop, from which he had forced the Boers, LieutenantGeneral Warren has secured possession of a rough tableland which constitutes the key to the Boer position. The casualties on the British side in the fighting at Venter Spruit on Saturday, when the troops under LieutenantGenerals Warren and Clery pushed the Boers back on their mam lines, include the disablement of eleven officers and 279 m en by wounds. A few Britishers were killed in this part of the advance, but the number is not stated. -. , Major-Generals Woodgatei Hart ana

Hildyard are co-operating with Lieiit-enant-General Warren in making his outflanking movement. During the fighting on Sunday last when General Warren's column was engaged nearly the whole day, the British casualties were less than one hundred. SUSPECTED SHORTNESS OF AMMUNITION. The Boers who have been fighting on the western slopes of Spionkop still hold another semi-circular position on the main ridge, behind the one from v ich they have been driven. Lord Dundonald has secured the approach to Olivers Hock. In the fighting of the last few days the Boers have shown less tenacity than has been their wont. They have seldom used their artillery, and itis suspected that they are short of ammunition. HEMMING IN THE BOERS. The generals acting under Sir Redvers Buller have echeloned their brigades (or swung into parallel lines) thus compelling the Boers to subdivide their forces. General Hildyard is now manoeuvring with the object of halving the enemy's troops. ' The prevention of their retreat through the southern passes of the Drakensberg mountain is already assured, and an endeavour is being made ; to drive the enemy in a direction which will permit of the Ladysmith garrison assailing their left flank. The infantry regiments of Sir George White's force are stationed on a prominent ridge sheltered by boulders, and can fire across a thousand yard, of flat country to the Boers' main stronghold. The artillery is also engaged in maintaining a Howitzer fire on the trenches along several miles of kopjes. The latest news froni the front indicates that General Buller's brigades are slowly, but surely, converging on the Boer centre, while General Warren is cautiously, though steadily, enveloping their right flank, pushing northeast. The column under Major- General Hon N. G. Lyttelton, which is advancing from Potgieter's Drift and threatening the Boers' left wing, . made formidable demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday* which compelled the full strength of the enemy to remain in their trenches. In these operations the Naval Brigade did good work, its artillery fire punishing the enemy severely. BOERS WALK INTO AN AMBUSH. Some details are to hand of the action in which Lord Dundonald's cavalry were engaged west of Action Homes on Thursday last. A party of 160 British posted on a kopje surprised a force of 350 Boers. The latter, who had been concealed in a donga or dry watercourse, leisurely marched up the hill with their arms slang, so little suspicion had they of the presence of an enemy. The ambushed Britishers allowed them to approach until within short range, and then poured in a volley. Six of the Boers were killed and the majority fled. THE BAYONET. One of the incidents of Sunday's fighting was the carrying of a strong position by the Frst Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers — which is in Major-General Hart's Irish Brigade— at the point of the bayonet. REINFORCEMENTS. Three batteries of artillery and five thousand troops have arrived at Capetown since Friday last. GATACRE'S COLUMN. Further fighting is expected to take place shortly at Stormberg, the scene of Lieutenant-General Sir W. F. Gatacre's reverse of last month, and at Burghersdorp, twenty-two miles further north. It is stated that in this locality the Boers have decided to place the Cape settlers who have joined their ranks in the forefront of the battle, because they have shown a preference for ambulance work rather than for fighting. LORD METHUEN'S FORCE. Lieutenant-General Hector Macdonald has taken over the command of the Highland Brigade at Modder river in succession to Major-General A. G, Wauchope, who fell at Magersfontein. NEAR MAFEKING. Colonel Plumer's Rhodesian Horse, which was reported yesterday as having reached Caberones, eighty miles north of Mafeking, came into conflict near that place with a Boer patrol, which it defeated. COLONIALS SPECIALLY HONOURED. Field. Marshal Lord Roberts, the new Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, has forbidden his soldiers to either molest the Boer settlers or loot their property. Colonial troops have been given the honour of forming the Commander-in-Chiefs bodyguard. Lord Roberts has also ordered that cash payment shall be made for all supplies purchased in the ordinary course of business, and that receipts be given for everything commandeered for the use of the British armies.