The Transvaal.

Manawatu Herald, 23 August 1900, Page 2

The Transvaal.

PROCLAMATION OF LORD ROBERTS. The army has received with acclaim'a proclamation issued by Lord Roberts, which reads as follows : — " Whereas the leniency offered to the Boers has been unappreciated and used as a cloak to resistance, and whereas there are no means of distinguishing combatants and noncombatants, oath-breakers will hereafter be punished by death, imprisonment or fine. " All burghers in occupied districts unless they have sworn an oath of neutrality will be regarded as prisoners of war and transported. Buildings harbouring Boer spies will be razed." The burghers who are asking for protection after surrender do not consider the proclamation harsh, inasmuch as it is calculated to check Boer vengeance. RE-APPEARANCE OF DE WET. General Christian De Wet, who is now in the Rustenburg district, sent a flag of truce as a trick to gain information, and demanded the surrender of Lieutenant-General HadenPowell's troops, who hold Commando Nek. Finding the garrison to be a strong one De Wet marched northwards. He is being shadowed by LieutenantGeneral Baden -Powell. INHUMAN TREATMENT OF A WOUNDED TROOPER. . Five British troopers who were patrolling near Krugersdorp on Wednesday the loth were attacked from the farm of a Boer who had taken the oath of neutrality. One of the men was wounded and captured. His brains were beaten out, and his body riddled with bullets. The farmhouse was afterwards burned and two arrests made. SUCCESSFUL SKIRMISHING. The Daily News says that Captains Reynolds and Travers, with a party of the Twenty-fifth Dragoons, surprised a commando of 100 Boers, who were laagered on an oathbreaker's farm at Kotze's Drift. The troop was not challenged until within seventy yards of the enemy's laager. Captain Reynolds shot two of the challengers, and the Dragoons poured in a hot fire causing great execution. Captain Reynolds was slightly wounded. One Dragoon is missing. HUNTER'S CASUALTIES. Three men of Lieutenant-General Hunter's force were killed at Spitz Kop, and forty- three wounded. The losses were chiefly amongst the Highland Brigade. BOERS SURRENDERING. Six hundred and eighty-four Boers have surrendered to MajorGeneral Bundle in the Harrismith district. SENSATIONAL ESCAPE OF A NEW ZE\LANDER. The wounding of Private Peterson, of the New Zea'and forces, at Wonderfontein, was the sequel to a sensational escape from Boer custody. Peterson had lately fallen into the hands of the enemy, and had been taken to their prison at Nooitgedacht along the Delagoa Bay railway.

With fifteen of his comrades, he succeeded in escaping from the prison by tunnelling, but afterward became separated from his mates, and went on alono. In travelling westward, for the purpose of finding Lord Roberta's lines, he touched at Machadodorp, which was for some time the Boer headquarters, and noted that about two thousand were in laager there. At Machadodorp Peterson was able to seize a horse, and on this he continued his journey. As he left the town he was seen by the Boer sentries, and was fired at, but managed to ii<lo out of the range without being hit. At dawn on Thursday last he came to Wonderfontein-a station some twenty-two miles east of Middleburg where the British were in force. Unluckily, he stumbled over the wire entanglement's outside the camp and being taken for one of the enemy was fired at by a sentry and wounded. His injury, however, is not of a serious nature. NEW ZRAL ANDERS SHOW THEIR METTLE. In the course of their flight before Lieutenant-General Carrington's troops, the small force of Boers that wa3 driven out of Malmani, twenty miles east of Mafeking, fortified some kopjes at Otto's Hock. They were, however, dislodged by the co onia troops, the New Zealanders particularly distinguishing themselves. •he casualties on the British side were four men killed and eleven wounded. The enemy lost fifteen, including Commandant Schwaartz, who was killed. THE PRETORIA PLOT. The burghers at Pretoria, are greatly impressed with the fairness shown to the prisoners by the courtmartial at the trial of Lieutenant Hans Cardna, of the Staats Artillery on the charge of having broken his parole and plotted to kidnap Lord Roberts and other British officers. Cardna declares that a British detective named Cano originated the plot, and that he ('ardna) was enlisted when he was drunk. He admits the breach of parole. C\PTURED BRITISHERS It now' transpires that the Boers captured fifty-two Kimberley Mounted Infantry at Klerksdorp, southwest of Johannesburg on July 25th They also secured fourteen Seaforth Highlanders on Thursday last at Reitfontein. • — — — —