CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 16 January 1902, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal.

ENGAGEMENT WITH DE WET. Armoured trains between Niroonstad and Wolvehoek prevented Christian De Wet, with a commando of twelve hundred men, crossing jfhe railway, and he retired eastward with CoLnel De Lisle’s column in pursuit. NUMBER UNDER ARMS. The correspondent of the Standard at Pretoria states correct total of Boers, including rebels, still in the field is 13,000. MR CHAMBERLAIN ON THE SITUATION. In the course of his speech at Birmingham, Mr Chamberlain said Lord Kitchener’s despatches were not sensational, but a great .improv* ment in South Africa was instanced by the fact that between June, igoo, and last June there were twenty-eight interruptions on the railway, while not a single interruption had been reported during the last three months. Lord Milner, added the speaker, would not flinch from bis task because a number of ill-bred Curs were barking at bis heels. RECENT FIGHTING. Colonel Wing’s column captured forty-two Boers , north-west of Ermelo, in the Eastern Transvaal, including Major Wolmarans, Captain Wolmarrins and Lieutenant Molan, of the Staats Artillery. Colonel Byng has captured several Boers and a Krupp gnn minus a breechblock, near Reitz, in the north-west of Orange Colony. A Boer doctor states that during Christian Botha’s fight with Major VbUetin’s force at Amerspruit, in the Eastern Transvaal, forty-two Boers were killed and seventy wounded. “The Times,” .correspondent at Ermelo says/ the • latest ■ successes show.that rapid night marches and surprises are the only means of catching* nV scared'Boers and ending the ■war.. . COMMANDANT GPPERMAN. Colonel Wing intercepted , a letter from General Piet Viljoen, announcing that Commandant Opperman, leader of the south-eastern commandoes, hid been killed in an engagement with Colonel Plumer’s force. Colonel Wing found a grave over which was a cross bearing the commandant’s initals. UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. . Sir Gordon Sprigg, Premier, of Cape Colony, in the course of a speech said Great Britain must accept no terms—only unconditional surrender, She should then give the Boers just and generous treatment. MISCELLANEOUS. A Reuter’s Agency message states that 'ten rebels under . Commandant Gueldenhuis robbed and. shot eight natives at Sunderland, in Cape Colony. According to the “ Daily Express ” the Rotterdam 'newspaper “ Nieuwe Rotterdam Courant ” honestly confesses that Dr Levds paid it to publish the statement that Boers who were wounded and taken prisoners at Elandslaagte were killed by the British,

Lieutenant Riaddick, of the Mew Zealand Mounted Rifles, is convalescent, and has resumed duty. A camp for the detention of Boer prisoners is being formed at Antigua, in the West '

General De Wet's chief officers, by five against three, decided to fight two months longer. A man named Liebenberg has been executed at Aliwal North for murdering Lieutemaut Neumeyer, who was captured unarmed and shot by two Boers in November, 1900. The other murderer had been previously executed.

The Chicago Transvaal League, including Judges and lawyers, has appealed to President Roosevelt to stop the shipment of horses and mules from New Orleans, with the view of enforcing neutrality and stopping the war.

Colonel Williams, formerly SurgeonGeneral of the Australasian Medical Corps, has acceded to Lord Kitchener’s request to return to South Africa.