CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS. The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 7 April 1900, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS. The Transvaal.

BRITISH TROOPS. The British infantry has been withdrawn to within eight miles of Bloerafontein. A large body of the enemy is reported to be moving south-west of Bloemfontein in the direction of the railway line running from the Orange river. ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA. Captain Hardame, of the Gordon Highlanders, and Lieutenant Le Mes- ■ eurier, of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who were captured in the fighting in Natal, have reached Delagoa Bay after a sensational escape from Pretoria while awaiting an opportunity to transfer prisoners. They hid for eighteen days in a damp, cramped hole underneath the prison, and lived on bread and water supplied by a confederate. DOORNSPRUIT. As a bait for General Broadwood's

convoy captured at Doornspruit a a couple of unarmed Boers loitered near the drift* Many foreigners, including Colonel Blake's Irish Brigade, participated I with the Transvaalers in the ambush. After the capture of the five guns belonging to U Battery, the remaining guns were rapidty withdrawn, and, opening Are, shelled the Boers heavily. The enemy were steadily driven backwards towards a low ridge, but strong reinforcements arriving they resumed the offensive, and the British were compelled to retire. V The captured guns were removed by the enemy betore the arrival of reinforcements under Major General Colville. The enemy were not pursued because they held a long range of kopjes covering the road leading to the north-eastward. Our forces were pursued for miles by the enemy, the Boers killing, wounding, and capturing. As showing how severely some of our forces suffered, a squadron of the" Sixth Dragoons, when reformed after pursuit, mustered only io instead of 140 men. Lieutenant-General French's division has returned from the position at Doornspruit to Bloemfontein. Commandant Ollivier's brilliant strategy in reoccupying Ladybrand and retaking Thabanchu in the Eastern Free State struck the only Vulnerable point in Lord Roberts's position. At an open-air meeting held at Capetown and attended by 20,000 persons, resolutions favouring the annexation of the Boer Republics were passed. The crowd hooted Mr Schreiner, Premier »of Cape Colony, and he had to take refuge in a cave for an hour, the crowd meantime singing the National Anthem. Eventually he escaped to Parliament House amidst cries of " Traitor " to which he replied, telling them to reserve their judgment. One hundred and fifty meetings in favour of annexation of the Boer Republics have been held throughout South Africa during the present week. MISCELLANEOUS. The mortality amongst the Simonstown prisoners from typhoid fever contracted at the Paardeberg camp is increasing. ~^ Sir Alfred milner, High (Commissioner in British South Africa, has returned to Capetown from Bloemfontein where he has been in consultation with Lord Roberts. President Kruger, in an oration at the late General Joubert's funeral, attributed the Boer defeats by the British to the rampant wickedness of the Republics. He stated that General Joubert's last words were : — " My poor country ; what will become of it ? " The War Office has asked the N. S. Wales Government to send four postal officials to Capetown to help in dealing with the correspondence of the Australian contingents. News has been received that the troopships Maplemore and Euryalus, with the New South Wales and Victorian bushmen offUoard, have reached the Cape, and been ordered on to Beir, in Portuguese East Africa.