The Tranavaal.

Manawatu Herald, 12 May 1900, Page 2

The Tranavaal.

INCIDENTS OF THE ADVANCE. The forces under Generals Hutton, Broadwood and Hamilton, in reconnoitring the country along the Zand river, found the enemy in considerable force. A party of Boers occupying a farmhouse near the Vet river, firing under i cover of a white flag, wounded three i of the West Australian Rifles. j Lord Roberts reports that the rail- ' I way between Brandfort and Smaldeel ; has been seriously damaged. The I bridge across the Vet river has been ! irreparably injured, the transport of stores being thus greatly delayed. A party of West Australian troops discovered a t quantity of concealed explosives on rfce Smaldeel line. The British force at Roidain, near the Vet river, the scene of a cavalry engagement during General Hamilton's passage of the Vet river, buried ■1 thirty-five Boers. The British losses j were eight killed ap.d thirty-three wounded. ' GENERAL FRENCH. The whereabouts of General French the leader of the cavalry division attached to Lord Roberts's army, is at present a mystery. COLONEL KEKEWICH'S DEFENCE. Lord Roberts, in his written-des-patch to the War Office with reference to the siege of Kimberley,- eulogises Lieutenant-Colonel Kekewich's tact, judgment and resolution. Lord Roberts also states that Mr Cecil' Rhodes materially contributed to the defence. Lieutenant-Colonel Kekewich, in his report, explains -that lack of artillery compelled a concentration of his forces, hence his inability to despatch expeditions against the enemy. FORMATION OF A NEW ZEALAND REGIMENT. The following message was received on Wednesday by the Premier from Major Cradock, officer commanding the second contingent of New Zealand mounted infantry :— " Arrived at Bloemfontein. Hear i that all sick are improving. ; " Three contingents are merging ! into . one regiment. Proceeding immediately forward in Hutton's Brigade. " Eighty-nine remounts arrived most opportunely, as they were urgently required." MAFEKING RELIEF FORCE. The Boer force which LieutenantGeneral Hunter's Mafeking relief force expelled from Fourteen Streams, just north of the Vaal river, fl§d precipitately " when attacked, ab- ' andoning all their belongings. | This headlong flight has caused some astonishment, for on taking possession of the vacated trenches, the British troops found them to be as formidable as those which General 1 Cronje's army held so long at Magers- 1 fontein. J LORD ROBERTS'S OPERATIONS. Major-General Hutton, with the Colonial Brigade, has reached Welgelegen, a station thirteen miles

north of Smaldeel, and forty-seven miles south of Kroonstad, the stronghold of the Boers in the Northern Free State.

Lieufenant-General Hamilton's column, moving across country eastward of the railway, has reached a point ten miles north of Winburg, therefore nearly abreast of the colonials. Reuter's correspondent with Lord Roberta's army reports that the Boers from Smaldeel are believed to be leaving Zand river, and retreating towards the Vaal. Other reports state that the enemy r.re concentrating at Boschrand, about fifty miles north of Smaldeel, and ten miles south of Kroonstad. Many of the Boers met with by the British columns are surrendering horses and Mauser rifles. The Royal •Engineers are constructing a deviation, railway bridge across the Vet river, to replace that destroyed by the enemy. In"fhe meantime a ford which is practicable tor army traffic has been discovered, and by ibis Lord Roberts has been abie to get his convoys across. GENERAL BULLER. The latest reports as to General Builer's doings in Natal show that he is . rapidly completing his transport arrangements with a view to a further advance. BOER PRISONERS. The British Government has decided to send no more Boer prisoners to St Helena, where General Cronje and a large number of Transyaalers are now interned. The Dutch-colonial friends of the Boer prisoners have subscribed £900 tb provide comforts for them~in their exile. BRITAIN'S POLICY. Lord Salisbury, addressing the Primrose League on Thursday night, said the turn in the tide of Imperi^Jism was traceable to the stain of Majuba Hill and the Gordon blunder. General Gordon's death had now been avenged and the greater humiliation of Majuba was about to be erased under the brilliant guidance of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. The largest army ever sent across the same expanse of sea was now reducing to obedience to the Queen territories which ought never to have been released from Imperial control. The restoration of the whole of South Africa to Great Britain was the only chance of peace. The disloyalty of the Transvaal in secretly arming to such a terrible advantage suggested a lesson. We know better now, said his lordship, than we did a decade ago the riskl&bf giving disloyal people the reins of government. . Ireland had had a similar opportunity and the verdict on the Home Rule question would meet with no early reversal. WOUNDED TROOPERS. The following members of colonial forces were wounded during the operation incidental to the capture of Brandfort :— Trooper Lloyd, Seymour and Braithwaite, Queensland Mounted Rifles; Troopers Campbell and Jones, New South Wales Mounted Infantry ; and Trooper L. E. Smith, No. 3 New ; Zealand Mounted Infantry. MISCELLANEOUS. A gunner who was sentenced to ; death for deserting to the Boers from one of the forces in Natal, and whom the Boers expelled from their ranks for insubordination, has had his sentence 1 commuted by General fuller to imprisonment for life. ! The horses of the Australian Bush- ■ men and New Zealand Rough Riders that are now being sent to Rhodesia , from Beira K the port in Portuguese ! East Africa, are specially protected while trax'elling through the region. where the tsetse fly abounds.