The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 5 April 1900, Page 2

The Transvaal.

THE KAREE FIGHT. The British forces at the battle at Karee Siding on Friday numbered ten thousand men with forty guns. The Boers had three thousand men with several field guns and Maxims. The British had nineteen rank and file killed and one hundred and fiftyone wounded. The arrival of the fresh troops from Brandfort, which operated on the British ontflanks, enabled the vanquished Boers to accomplish their retreat.

It is expected that the next battle between the British under Lord Roberts and the Boers with President Kruger's main force in the Free State will take place at Eroonstad. President Kruger has warned the women and children to leave Bloemfontein within five days, as he intends to bombard the town and shoot the rebel burghers. Details of the battle of Earee show that the enemy's right flank rested on wooded hills, a low ridge leading to their central position, where a high ridge held the left flank, consisting of broken kopjes. Colonel Lie Gallais's Horse, operating on the Boer left flank, first engaged the enemy, and steadily directed their Vickers-Maxim gunfire into the undergrowth, drawing the enemy towards the centre, but not. expelling them till late in the day. General French, with the Ist Cavalry Division, early made a wide detour towards the rear. The Boers soon retreated to their centre, on the edge of a deep donga, from which they were expelled by shell-fire. The infantry attack opened at midday, the Norfolk and Lincolnshire Regiments and the city of London Volunteers being hotly engaged. The artillery in the meantime kept up a vigorous fire. A simultaneous advance was made at four o'clock, and the position carried. The infantry, prior to the last assaulted, were extended in open order, under a sweeping fire, for hours, and suffered from the work of Commandant Smutz's skirmishers, who were hidden in the sorub. The New South Wales Rifles rushed the second position of the enemy on the left, the centre kopje being stormed by the East Lancashires. the South Wales Borderers and the Scottish Rifles. The enemy eventually fled, abandoning almost impregnable trenches. LOSS OF A CONVOY. A message from Router's oorres* pondent states that owing to the approach of a large Boer commando Major-General R. G. Rroadwood, with the Tenth Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own), the Household Cavalry, two battalions of Horse Artillery and Colonel Pilcher, retreated westwards from Thabanchu on Friday night. The force encamped at 4 o'clock on Saturday morning at Bloemfontein waterworks, on the south bank of the Modder river. At daylight the Boers shelled the camp from the rear, and General Broadwood despatched his convoy from the scene protected by six guns retaining the remainder of his force as a rearguard. The convoy, however, walked into an ambush in a deep spruit (or waterway), and was captured, together with the six guns, without scarcely a shot being fired. Major-General Sir Henry Coiville, commander of the Ninth Division, has left Bloemfontein, and has en* gaged the enemy. NEW ZEALANDERS. The New Zealand Mounted Infantry, who were operating to the rear of the hills, occupied by the Boers at Earee, accelerated the flight of the enemy, who largely consisted of Johannesburg police. Their defeat is ascribable to the flanking movements of General French and Colonel Le Gallais. Colonel Pilcher's force which included the New Zealand Mounted Infantry, brought thelanddrost away from Ladybrand. JOUBERT'S SUCCESSOR. President . Eruger has announced that Commandant Louis Botha (who led the Boers at Spionkop and has lately been in charge in Natal) has been given chief command of the j Federal forces, in accordance with j the last expressed wish of General j Joubert. MISCELLANEOUS*, There are many complaints in Home and Cape newspapers of the undue leniency being shown to the rebels by the British. Free State refugees at Maseru on the eastern -border of the Free State report that President Hteyn Jias ordered that English burghers who refuse to fight with the Boer forces shall be shot. President Steyn has visited Ladybrand and harangued the burghers. The Free State Volkaraad was summoned to meet at Kroonatad, but the majority of members refused to obey the summons. RECOVERY OF GUNS* The correspondent of the London "Daily Chronicle " reports that after desperate fighting the six British guns captured by the Boers near Bloemfontein on Saturday after General Broad* i wood's retreat from Thabanchu, were retaken by the British. Information has reaohed London, that the water supply at Bloemfontein the headquarters of Lord Roberts's army has been cut by the enemy. IMPROPER MISSILES. During the engagement at Karee on Friday last the Boer riflemen used softnosed bullets. EIGHTY WAGGONS LOST. The British lost eighty waggons at Kroorspruit, the scene of General Broadwood's reverse. THE WATER SUPPLY. A message from Renter's cornspon-

dent says that fighting was resumed with the enemy on Sunday, but the Boers are still holding the kopjes near the Bloemfontein waterworks. The reserve reservoirs at Bloemfontein contain a good supply of water. GENERAL JOUBERT. Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, Com* mander-in-Chief of the British army in South Africa, has sent messages of ' condolence to President Kruger and Mrs Joubert upon the death of the late Boer commander-in-chief. Lord Roberts describes General Joubert as having been a distinguished general, as well as a gallant, humane, and chivalrous man. ANNEXATION ADVOCATED. The Hon. J. Rose-Innes, late leader of the Opposition in the House of Assembly, delivered a remarkable speech at Claremont, insisting that the annexation of the Boer Republics was the only alternative to civil war. 4 Two thousand Dutch residents in the Paarl district of Cape Colony have unanimously demanded the annexation of the Republics and the punishment of colonial rebels.