LORD ROBERTS.

Manawatu Herald, 24 February 1900, Page 2

LORD ROBERTS.

Lord Roberts is pushing on the advance into the Free State, and is now at Pardeberg, thirty miles eastward of Jacobsdal.

Field-Marshal Lord Roberts has cabled to the War Office that the forces under Lord Kitchener, MajorGeneral Kelly- Kenny and MajorGeneral Hector Macdonald are engaged in severe fighting in the direction of Paardeburg, some thirty miles east of Jacobsdal. Several British officers have been killed and many "wounded. From later particulars of the operations of Lord Roberts' army in the Free State it appears that General Cronje, in his retreat from Magersfontein, subdivided his fc cv, the eastward march from the .ladder river being in separate groups. The severest engagement between the British and Boer forces occurred around the Boer laager at Koodoosrand.

In his report Lord Roberts states that the casualties amongst the officers up to Sunday night numbered forty-eight.

Nine officers were killed, amongst them being Colonel William Allworth, second in doiflmand of the First Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, 16th Foot.

Thirty-nine officers were wounded, among the number being the following distinguished soldiers : — Major-General Hector Macdonald, Commander of the Highland Brigade (severely), MajorGeneral Knox, Colonel T. M. Berkeley, of the " Black Watch " (severely), and Colonel A. M. Garthew Yorstoun, also of the " Black Watch."

Amongst the Boers killed at Koodoosrand was General Ferreira,, the Free State Commandant, who was in command of the besieging forces at Kimberlev.