CONDEN8ED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 25 January 1902, Page 2

CONDENBED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal. DEPRESSION AMONGST THE BOERS. According to a hundred and eighty prisoners, who have been brought to Standerton, the Boers recognise that their independence is gone, but persist in fighting because their leaders insist. POSITIONS OF BOTHA AND DE WET. General Botha is twenty miles east of the Ermelo blockhouses. He is in touch with several groups, but there is no cohesion among the Boer commandoes elsewhere. General Da Wet is seventeen miles south-east of Reitz, in the east of Orange River Colony. • RECENT FIGHTING. Colonel Kekewich surprised K!assen’s laager at Paardebery, capturing eleven Boers. Commandant Wessels surprised a patrol of fifty of the Oradock (Cape Colony) Town Guard. Most of the. latter are missing. THE DELEGATES IN EUROPE. Commandant Wolmarans, who was recently taken prisoner, expresses contempt for the Boers in Europe living at the expense of the late republics and sending optimistic reports as to their prospects, knowing them to be false MORE MEN FROM AUSTRALIA. In the Federal House of Representatives, Mr Barton stated that he had received a cable message from Mr Chamberlain saying that in view of the splendid response of Australia to the recent request for troops, the Imperial Government would very gladly accept another thousand men on the same terms as the contingent now being raised. , He proposed to reply without delay that the Government would comply with the request. In reply to a question, Mr Barton said he had offered to provide transports, but the War Office expressed a desire to carry out its own transportation arrangements. COST OF THE STRUGGLE. Sir Michael Hicks-Beaoh, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated in the House of Commons that during the nine months from April to December last the war had cost £46,000,000. WOUNDED NEW ZEALANDERS. Privates James Considine and William Bates, of the Seventh New Zealanders, have been wounded at Charleston. BLOCKHOUSE GARRISONS. There are nearly five thousand blockhouses in the Transvaal and Grange Colony. They require a garrison of 50,000 troops. BOER LOSSES. Lord Kitchener's weekly report states that continuous rains bad interrupted operations. Thirty-one Boers had bean killed, 18 wounded and 170 taken prisoners; and 41 had surrendered. ENCIRCLING DE WET. A system of blockhouses, constituting a parallelogram 140 miles by 60 miles, enclosing General De Wet, has been almost completed. RECENT FIGHTING. Lord Kitchener reports that Lord Methuen, after a running fight for eight miles, captured a laager, many cattle and twenty-three Boers at Boschpoort. General Bruce Hamilton, during a night march against General Botha, captured twenty-seven of the enemy at Witbank. Colonel Colenbrander captured seven of Steenkamp’s men in the Magaliesberg. He unearthed twenty barrels of gunpowder and two hundred rounds of shrapnel.

CHARGES AGAINST THE ARMY. The Melbourne Senate has adopted resolutions expressing indignation at the baseless charges against the troops in South Africa, and its readiness to give all requisite aid to the Empire. The resolutions were greeted with cheers. SENTENCES REDUCED. The sentences passed upon Lieutenant Botha and others, belonging to one of the Cape District Mounted Corps, for misbehaviour and cowardice in surrendering to ’ the Boers at Doorabosch in October last, have been redUced—Botha’s to One year’s imprisonment, and the others to lesser periods. MISCELLANEOUS. Lord Kitchener reports that the inoculation of cattle for rinderpest, enabling ox transport to continue, has surprised the oldest inhabitants, In view of the final resistance, women are cultivating the fields near the Zoutapanberg so as to relieve all male Boers for service in the field. Six thousand seasoned troops are starting from India to exchange places with young soldiers in South Africa. Mr Kruger, in a recent interview said the Boers would never accept subjugation first and then autonomy, but would insist on independence. Dr Leyds has protested to the Powers that the execution of Commandant Scheepers was assassination. In the House of Commons Viccount Oranborne, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, stated that £28,880 compensation had been paid for the detention and search of German vessels in South African waters. M. Delcasse, Minister for Foreign Affairs, said it was impossible to mediate in the South African war. An attempt to enfore mediation inevitably meant war.