The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 10 April 1900, Page 2

The Transvaal.

SPLENDID ACHIEVEMENT. Major Booth, of the Northumberland Regiment, and two other officers and two men, at the fight near Bloemfontein waterworks, kept five hundred Boers at bay, thus enabling MajorGeneral Broadwood to secure a good position. Major Booth was killed. UNREST AMONGST THE FREE STATERS. The townspeople at Bloemfonteio are restless at turn events have taken and Lords Roberts has ordered that all civilians must be in-doors after 8 o'clock at night. Several residents have been arrested for trafficking with the enemy. 1 be newspapers are agreed that the rank efforts at conciliation made by the British have been premature, and that the leniency shows has been interpreted as weakness. A GALLANT CHARGE. It is reported that on Sunday last a force of ninety Dragoon Guards charged the enemy near Doornspruit and recaptured ninety-one prisoners taken by the enemy, including eleven officers. BRITISH MARCH NORTHWARDS, Major-General Clements's force has marched from Bloemfontein to a position five miles north of the Free State capital. The march was peaceful. There is a company of Queensland Mounted Rifles at Bushmanskop, to the south-east of Bloemfontein. The enemy's skirmishers are round to the south-west, and artillery firing has been beard south-east of Bloemfontein. A Boer commando appeared at Wep ener, on the Caledon river, about sixtyfive miles south-east of Bloemfonteii (and north of Bushmanskop), where they demanded the surrender of Brigadier-General Brabant's force, in order to avoid bloodshed. The reply given to tbe demand was, ••There is no answer." The Boers then opened an attack. COMMANDANT PRETORIUS. Commandant Pretorius, who lost his leg and was taken prisoner by the British at Elandslaagte, and was afterwards released by Lord Roberts, was present at the Doornspruit fight, being seated in a cart. His farm is situated near Doornspruit, and his family and servants were amongst the first looters of the captured British convoy. COLONEL PILCHER. At the recent outpost fight at Lady brand, in which Colonel Pilcher's small force (which included some of tbe New Zealand No, x contingent) drove the Boers into the town, and captured the Landdrost, twenty-five Boers were killed. When ambushed with the rest of the force at Doom spruit, the Britishers managed to retain possession of their prisoner, and took him to Bloemfontein. MAFEKING. Mafeking reports all well on 27th March. The Boers are breaking up their main laager to the west of the town, and are fighting with the natives in the south. Colonel Plumer, who is attempting to relieve the town from the north, by a series of night marches, reached a spot near Zeerust, in the Transvaal some thirty-five miles north-east of Mafeking, on the 23rd March, and damaged the Boer line of communications. He then returned to the north of Pitsani, which is about thirty miles north of Mafeking. Pretoria claims that the Transvaalers achieved a victory at Ramathlabama, twenty miles north of Mafeking, on tbe 31st inst. It is stated that twenty of Colonel Plumer's men were killed during the engagement, among the number being five officers. Nine prisoners were taken. Colonel Baden- Powell's force made an ineffectual sortie' from Mafeking simultaneously with the action. The " Daily News " states ,., that seventy shells fell into Mafeking on Friday morning, this being the record number since the town was invested. There are still two thousand besiegers in the Boer laagers, but it is thought there have been many i deserters. BOER CRUELTY. ; According to the story of refugees 1 at Bloemfontein Boers on the Basuto* land border in the eastern Free State have cruelly illtreated burghers, who had surrendered to the British. It is stated that some were shot, and many, by intimidation, forced to rejoin the Boer forces. DEPORTATION OF PRISONERS. General Cronje and Colonel Schiel, with one thousand other Boer prisoners have sailed from Simonstown for St. Helena, where they are to remain in captivity until the war is ended. A dozen Boer prisoners, malingerers in the hospital at Simonstown, made an attempt to escape but were prevented and shipped off to St. Helena with a number of other prisoners. FIGHTING SOUTH OF BLOEMFONTEIN. The following official report has reached the War Office:— A strong Boer force with twenty-four guns, ap-

peared at Reddersburg on Wednesday, where they surrounded and captured three companies of tbe Roya 1 Irish Rifles (83rd Foot) and two companies cf t':e Ninth Mounted Infantry. Tiie 'fighting which preceded the capture of these forces lasted for twenty-one hours. After news ot the battle reached Bloemfontein detachments were sent south, and troops also sent out from Springfontein, towards the scene of hostilities, but they obtained no news of the missing forces. TOTAL CASUALTIES. A return issued by the War Office shows that the British losses at Red-, dersburg were as follows : — Killed zo Wounded 35 Prisoners 546 Total 591 The Boers are estimated to have numbered 3200. DOORNSPRUIT. The list of casualties suffered by Major-General Broadwood's column during the fighting at Doornspruit numbered four hundred and fifty. The following members of the New Zealand force of mounted infantry are reported missing ".—Quartermaster-Ser-geant Sadler; Sergeant Harris, Wellington Guards ; Private Jewell, Auckland Mounted Rifles ; Private Miller, Heretaunga Mounted Rifles; Private Pope, Waikato Mounted Rifles ; Private Tarrant, Auckland Mounted Rifles; Private Valentine, .Hawera Mounted i Rifles; Private Wyllie, Alexandra Mounted Rifles; Private Butler, Wei- ' lington Permanent Force ; Private Catherall, Hastings Rifles; Private! Cossar, Canterbury Mounted Rifles ; Private Franklin, Rangitikei Mounted, Rifles; Private Heenan, Southland Mounted Rifles } Private Prosser, Ellesmere Mounted Rifles; Private Palmer, Hawera Mounted Rifles ; Private Waldie, Wellington Permanent Force. LORD METHUEN. Information has reached the War Office of a skirmish having taken place at Boshoi, about thirty miles northeast of Kimberley, between a force of the enemy and Lord Methuen'stroops. The fighting lasted for four hours, during which seven of tha enemy were killed and fifty -four captured, none of their number escaping. Amongst those killed was Colonel Villebois d'Mareuil, the French strategist, who has been assisting the Boers throughout the war. BOER TREACHERY. After the Boers had hoisted the white flag at Boshof, one of the enemy shot Captain Boyle of the Imperial Yeomanry, dead. The murderer was killed. GENERAL CLEMENTS. Major-General Clements, in marching north from Fauresmith to Bloemfontein, kept his men continuously under arms for fifteen days. The country was found to be peaceful, and the long march was without incident. COLONIAL TROOPS CAPTURED. Fifty men belonging to the E squadron of Kilchener's Horse were surrounded and captured at a farmhouse on the Riet river, in the southern portion of the Free State, after a desperate resistance. They loop-holed tbe walls, and fought for three days without food. Then they captured a goat. All the horses died from starvation. On the fourth day the men were completely exhausted, and the enemy surrounded and captured them. Four hundred Boers were engaged in the attack on the farmhouse. PRISONERS OF WAR. Speaking in the House of Commons <he Hon. George Wyndbam, Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, stated that on March 31st the number of Boer prisoners was 5000 and the number of British prisoners 3466. AN IMPROBABLE STORY. According to a Boer account, among the documents captured with the convoy at Doornspruit were plans correcting the route from Mafeking to Pretoria proposed to be taken by Dr Jameson in the Jameson raid. Also a list of the Free State burghers who have surrendered to the British. The newspapers in London discredit the assertion of the Boers that they captured plans for the invasion of the Republics. BOER MONEY. President Kruger is minting British money dated 1892. He declares that the output of the Transvaal goldmines is ample to cover the cost of the war. THE JOHANNESBURG MINES. The New York Herald has been authorised to state that the Boers do not intend to destroy property at Johannesburg. It is supposed that the announcement has been made with a view to smooth the way to peace. It is believed that the New York Herald's announcement is made with a view to render easier 'the task of the Boer peace emissaries recently sent to Europe. BRABANT'S FORCE. It now appears that the engagement between Brigadier-General Brabant's force and the Boers at Wepener (where the Boers called upon the British General to surrender) was confined to the outposts. MISCELLANEOUS. An Australian detachment captured 1 a thousand cattle near Brandfort, to J the north of Bloemfontein. ; Mr Cecil Rhodes, who was cooped up in the siege of Kimberley, has arrived in London. He returns to Rhodesia in a few weeks' time. Two men have been arrested at Beaufort West, in Cape Colony, tor attempting to wreck the train in which Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner of British South Africa, returned from his conference with Lord Roberts at Bloemtontein to the Cape.