GENERAL BULLER.

Manawatu Herald, 24 February 1900, Page 2

GENERAL BULLER.

General Buller has telegraphed to the War Office that the enemy practically abandoned Colenso, and MajorGeneral Hart's brigade occupied the town after but slight resistance.

Bodies of the enemy have been seen in full retreat to the northward, and only a weak rearguard has been left across the railway line leading to Ladysmitb. At the tirrie General Buller's despatch was cabled Major-General Hart's advance guard was crossing the river at Colenso.

General Buller, commanding the army in Natal, has cabled to the War Office that on Wednesday last the British troops crossed the Tugela river by a pontoon bridge and drove the enemy's rearguard forward, the Naval twelve-pounders silencing the enemy's gnns. The British, on taking possession of the abandoned laagers, found many evidences of a panic having seized the enemy, who in their hurried retreat left behind quantities of stores, ammunition, blankets, Bibles and different varieties of expanding bullets. They had also abandoned their dead and wounded comrades. Two hundred waggons with a large escort left Colenso un the 18th instant.

The heavy siege guns which had been mounted by the Boers upon Isumbulwana, a rugged hill to the east of Ladysmith, from which a heavy bombardment had been maintained, have vanished. The advance of General Buller's army is now visible from Ladysmith. NEAR COLESBERG. There are comparatively few burghers left in the Colesberg district, where, however, the British forces have been much weakened by the' removal of Lieut-General French's cavalry division for the relief of Kimberley. It is estimated that the number facing Lieutenant-General Gatacre's division in the Stormberg district, on the eastern railway line of Cape Colony, is about siv thousand. The commando which has been raiding in has been recalled to the Transvaal. CRONJE'S RETREAT. With an army of five thousand men, and carrying away his heavy guns from Magersfontein, General Cronje, after leaving Magersfontein, succeeded in evading the British force thai was sent to intercept his passage across the Modder river at Klipkraal. He was able to escape notice and cross the river at this point to the southern side before the British column reached it. The rearguard of the flying army is being incessantly harassed by the pursuing British troops. Boer prisoners now in the hands of the British state that Cronje deceived his men as to the progress of the war, informing them daily of reverses that he alleged had been inflicted upon the British. BOER MOVEMENTS. The correspondents ot The Times and Standard express the belief that the Transvaal and Free State burghers who have been fighting in Natal are retiring to their respective countries, wishing to cover the routes to Pretoria. ] It is reported that the outlying portions of the Transvaal and the area ! around Pretoria have been undermined by the Boers.