The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 26 June 1900, Page 2

The Transvaal.

♦ — SURROUNDING DE WET. A forward movement baa been made by part of General Buller's army to Zandspruit Drift, on the Vaal river, about thirty miles north-west of Lang's Nek, and about twenty miles north of Vrede. It is thought, with the assistance of Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Hunter' 9 division (last heard of from Krugersdorp, about twenty five miles west of Johannesburg) to sever General De Wet's Free State commandoes and Commandant Christian Botha's Transvaalers. ROBERT'S LAST BATTLE. The details Of the battl? at Eerste Fabrieken, nine miles east of Pretoria, on the 1 2th inst., show that magnificent generalship was displayed during a severe struggle. During the engagement a British battery endeavoured to seize a gap in the enemy's line, but a body of Boers galloped to within six hundred yards, and raked the battery with a heavy rifle fire. The battery was, however, saved by a charge of the Twelfth Lancers, during whose operations Colonel the Earl of Airlie was killed. Simultaneously the Boers attacked the right flank of the British line, but fled demoralised when the Household Cavalry charged them. GENERAL HAMILTON. In his despatches to the War Office, Lord Roberts praises the marching ot Lieutenant-General lan Hamilton's column, which covered 400 miles in forty-five days, with ten days' halts and twenty-eight engagements; The City of London Volunteers travelled five hundred miles in fiftyone days, halting for two days ; and having twenty-six engagements. BOLD PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY. After ■ the battle of Eerste Fabrieken, nine miles east of Pretoria, on the 12th inst., a force of Australian mounted men doggedly pursued the retreating enemy. They advanced to within eight hundred yards of the Boer laager, firing a hundred and fifty rounds apiece and killing two field-cornets. The Boers trekked away in great confusion, but their movements were covered by a strong rearguard, which forced the Australians to retire; This they did coolly without loss* CHECKING DE WET. The latest reports from General Buller announce his arrival at Pardekop, a railway station twenty miles north-west of Zandspruit, where numbers of the enemy are surrendering. Lieut-General lan Hamilton's I mounted infantry column is about to join General Buller's army, and arrived on Thursday at Springs, the terminus of a short railway line that runs due east for a distance of twenty miles I from Elandsfontein, the junction of the Natal line with the main Cape to Pretoria line. From Springs General Hamilton will go on to Heidelberg, which is less than thirty miles from Elandsfontein Junction. General Buller is expected to reach the Standerton Station, which is sixtyfive miles south-east of Heidelberg, tomorrow. General Buller's cavalry, under Lord Dundonald, passed on fifty miles northward along the railway line from Pardekop to Standerton. On arrival there it wa s s found that the enemy bad previously retired after

destroying the railway bridge with explosives. IN THE NORTH-WEST, Lieut.-General Baden-Powell, in hi* operations at Rustenburg, sixty miles west of Pretoria, has captured a Boer commandant named Steyn and two actively hostile field-cornets. In the same district two thousand rifles have been surrendered by the enemy to Lord Edward Cecil. FIGHTING IN THE SOUTH. An attempt was made by the Boers „■ on Tuesday to outflank a force of YeO' manry and artillery belonging to Lieut. General Rundle's division, at Hararaonia, in the eastern part of the Orange River Colony, but was smartly re» pulsed. STEYN'S MANIFESTO. Among the papers found at Bloem" fontein are drafts of the manifesto issued by President Steyn to the Free State burghers at the outbreak of the war. The papers bore a date in July. STOPPAGE OF A CHEQUE. Lord Roberts has stopped payment of a cheque for £40,000, drawn for the . Banque Francaise Afrique on the Na« . tionaJ Bank by the South African Republic, whose funds now belong to Great Britain by right of conqaest. MISCELLANEOUS. A proclamation has been issued by the Transvaal Executive, now in flight along the eastward railway with the 'President, threatening to confiscate ~ the property of any burghers who refuse to accept Mr Krnger's Treasury notes. : ____ '