CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.
» • The Transvaal. LORD ROBERTS'S CENSURES. Lord Roberta's criticisms of Generals Buller and Warren in connection with the Spionkop reverse has caused consternation in the military clubs. Many of the members blame the Government for publishing such damaging documents.. Others ask why Lord Methuen has been shie lded. "The Times'" declares that the
authority of General Sir Redvers Buller and Lieutenant-Generai Sir Charles Warren with their troops will be impaired after Lord Roberts's censures. The criticism of Lord Roberts with regard to the generalship in the fighting at Spionkop have created a sensation in Natal. His Lordship's strictures are generally endorsed. MINISTERIAL EXPLANATION. The Right Hon W. H. Long, President of the Board of Agriculture, speaking at Hull, said Lord Roberts's censures on Generals Buller and Warren were only published when they were not likely to affect the result of military operation. The recall of the generals was, he said, entirely at the discretion of the Field- Marshal. BOERS IN NATAL. ' It is reported that the Boer forces on the Biggarsberg range retired northward as a feint to prematurely drew General Buller's army. Fifteen thousand Boers now occupy a succession of ridges between Sunday's river and Daudee. The,apparently expect the British forces will follow the railway line along the Waschback valley. , The fortifications of the enemy are so arranged as to permit of a gradual retreat under coven WEPENER. The district around Wepener, in the south east of the Free State, where Colonel Dalgety's force has been besiezed, is deluged with rain. * The only news to hand with respect to the siege of Wepener, the town on the Basutoland border where Colonel Dalgetty's force of Cape troops is invested, is a report trom a Boer source that the attack on the town is being ptessed by a . force of eight thousand men, with fifteen guns. On the night of the nth instant the Boers were discovered slipping up a donga, or dry watercourse, towards Wepener. The British Maxims opened on the enemy at a distance of 200 yards, with destructive effect. The Boers afterwards removed five waggon loads of dead and wounded from the field. Simultaneous attacks elsewhere on the British position were repulsed at the point of the bayonet. BOERS AND NATIVES. * There are many Boers in Swaziland j preparing for making a final resistance to the British advance. The Swazis are reluctant to afford them the slightest help. COLONIAL COMMISSIONS. The Canadian Government has asked Lord Roberts to nominate twenty four members of the Canadian contingent now in South Africa for commissions in the Imperial army. MILITARY SETTLERS. As many army reservists are desirous of settling in South Africa, an officers' committee has been formed to help the project. ARMY RECRUITS. Major-General H.C. Borett, Inspec-tor-General of Auxiliary Forces and Recruiting has reported to the War Office that 83.353 men volunteered for the regular army and the militia during the year 1899. MISCELLANEOUS. Colonel M. E. Crofton, of the second battalion of the Royal Lancaster Regiment, whom Colonel Thorneycroft superseded in taking command of Major-General Woodgate's Brigade when the latter was mortally wounded in the attack on Spionkop, has been placed 011 half-pay. Two Germans at Capetown hired horses, and then disappeared. , They were sltosequently found a hundred miles away inland with rifles and six hundred cordite cartridges in their possession. Both were arrested and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. Two hundred Boer cattle have been captured and brought to Boshof, to the north-west of Kimberley, the headquarters of Lieut.-Colonel Kekewich's column. A large supply of Mauser rifles has been found concealed at Bloemfontein News has been received of the death of Lieutenant Basche and Trooper Bender, of the New South Wales Mounted Infantry at the front, from enteric fever. CONDITIONS OF PEACE. Sir Henry Fowler, M.P. for East Wolverhampton, who was Secretary of State for India in 1894-95. addressing his constituents at Wolverhampton, tjaid that the first condition of peace was the establishment of British supremacy in South Africa, implying the safety of India with the right to hold, preserve and protect the colonies. LORD ROBERTS. The " Daily Chronicle " states that, remounts having arrived at Bloemfontein Lord Roberts is now ready to advance his army. PRESIDENT STE^N. President Steyn is urging his followers to at all costs prevent the British securing the rich pastoral ground in the districts around Wepener, Ladybrand and Ficksburg. AT DEWETSDORP. News has been received that on Friday last Major-General Sir Henry Rtindle, commander of ttfe Bth Division fought the enemy at Dewetsdorp, forty miles east-by-south of Bloemtontein and about a similar distance northwest of Wepener. The engagement opened with an artillery duel, which lasted from noon., until dusk, by which time too of the enemy's guns had been silenced. The mounted troops had in the mean time out flanked the Boers and opening fire upon them, the enemy were driven from their position to a second ridge. Tbe British then occupied the first ridge their casualties being a few wounded. LORD METHUEN. On Friday Lord Methuen, who has advanced north east of Kimberley to Zwartskop, was ordered to retire to Boshof, some thirty miles from the diamond fields township.
When near Bishof portion of his troopr. -vere fiercely attacked by two thousand Boers, with three guns. The force, which consisted of mounted men from Kimberley and the Yorkshire Yeomanry, who were protecting the convoy, six miles long, took cover in neighbouring kopjes. The Boers fought skilfully and determinedly till the- moment they came within three hundred yards, when they were repulsed, suffering heavily. There w*?re several British casualties. The convoy was saved. A VICE-PRESIDENT. Commandant Schalkbnrger, who led the Boer army at the battle of Colenso, has been appointed VicePresident of the Transvaal. THE BEIRA ROUTE. Mr Reitz, the Transvaal State Secretary, has protested angrily to the Portuguese Government against the British forces being allowed to pass through the Portuguese territory in East Africa by the Beira route on their way to Rhodesia. The Portuguese Government has replied that consent was given in accordance with the 1891 treaty. The Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs has informed the Cortes that none of the Powers have protested in regard to the matter, and no protest is expected. GENERAL CARRINGTON. Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Carrington has arrived at the port of Beira en route to Rhodesia. The portions of the Australian Bushmen's Contingent that preceded him have gone in the direction of Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia, 382 miles from the coast, and the inland terminus of the Beira railway. MAINTAINING ORDER. With a view to the preservation law and order, Major-General G. Pretyman, Governor of Bloemfontein, has been made military Governor of the whole portion of the Orange Free State now occupied by the British. REWARD OF A MEDICAL MAN. Surgeon Major Babtie has received the Victoria Cross for bringing in Lieut, the Hon F. H/S. Roberts ofthe King's Royal Rifles (son of Lord Roberts) when the young officer was mortally wounded at the battle of Colenso. ARMING THE NATIVES. Instances are coming to light where the Boers in Natal are arming natives and compelling them to assist the commandoes. MESSAGE FROM MAJOR ROBIN. Captain Hutson, Lieutenant Findlay Veterinary - Lieutenant Saunderson, and Sergeant Cassidy, of the No. 2 New Zealand Contingent, have recovered from their illness. Major Robin, Commander of the No 1 New Zealand Contingent, has assured the New Zealand AgentGeueral that the members of the contingent are greatly cheered at the interest the people of* the colony evince in their movements and by the send* ing of comforts. HEAVY RAINS. The rainfall in the Free State has amounted to a deluge. It has filled the drains in various parts of the country. Grass is now abundant in the country. The weather is now fine, but Lord Roberts is still delayed in his advance by the impassable condition ot the river drifts, or fordipg places. RAILWAY TRAFFIC. The railway bridge over the Orange river at Bethulie, which was damaged by the Boers prior, to their retirement northward, has now been restored. As both the railways into the Free State are now available, it is possible to run fifteen trains into Bloemfontein daily instead of three.
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Manawatu Herald, 24 April 1900, Page 2
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1,361CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS. Manawatu Herald, 24 April 1900, Page 2
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