CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 13 February 1902, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

# The Transvaal. A BIG DRIVE. Lord Kitchener, writing from Waivehoek, reports on the Sunday after the operations and captures already reported as having taken place east of the Liebenbergsvlei and Wilgs rivers. The despatch states that the whole force of mounted troops on the night of Wednesday, the sth inst., was drawn into a continuous line on the west bank of the Liebenbergsvlei river, stretching from Frankfort in the north to Fannyshome Kaffiskop in the west.

At dawn the line advanced westward, and was assisted on the night of the 6th by entrenched outposts fifty yards apart, holding a Tne from Acland, on the Heilbr >n-Frankfort blockhouse line, to Doornkloof, on the Kroonstad-Lindley line. While the advances were being made, the column worked along from the blockhouses to prevent the enemy crossing. At dawn the line then advanced to the Heiibrom-Kroonstad, road. The left wing advanced to Amerika Siding a few miles north of Kroonstad, and jnnctioned with the KroonstadWolvehoek blockhouse line on the night of the yth. This line was held in the same way. The columns advanced at dawn to the railway blockhouse line, which was strengthened to prevent crossing. De Wet on the 6th was within the enclosed area, but during the night he dispersed his men. Then, with a few men and a herd of cattle, he made for the Kroonstad-Lindley blockhouse line.

At one o’clock, the night being very dark, De Wet, by rushing the cattle at a wire fence, broke through amidst the cattle, losing three of his party killed.

Outposts on the line were attacked at various places during the night of the 7th. Some few of the enemy crossed near Hilbron, where ten dead were found. As far as can be ascertained, two hundred and eighty-threa Boers were killed, wounded or taken prisoners, while seven hundred tired horses and many cattle were captured. Our casualties numbered ten. The great drive of De Wet's two thousand men is finished.

The British troops are still collecting stragglers. An armoured train is patrolling wherever they are expected to appear. The newspapers agree that this Has been one of the best-conceived and executed movements ot the latter part of the war. RE-PEOPLING THE RAND. 1 Lord Milner has appointed a municipal board of ten members at Pretoria. A thousand permits to refugees to return to the Rand, representing three thousands souls, are being issued monthly. The number will shortly be doubled. THE FAMOUS DRIVE. Details of the drive of De Wet's forces show that the latter were driven into a parallelogram of blockhouse a hundred and fifty miles long and fifty miles wide. The area covered by Lord Kitchener’s actual drive from the Liebenbergslei was seventy miles long by fifty miles wide. DE WET. Surrendered prisoners report that a

mutinous spirit exists among Da Wet * commando because, when the tight corner of the isosceles triangle was reached, the Boor general advised them to shift for themself riding off with a small bodyguard. A BRITISH CONVOY CAPTURED.

A convoy trekking from Beaufort West in the centre of Cape Colony, to Fraserburg, seventy miles to the northwest, escorted by a hundred infantry and sixty of the district mounted infantry) was captured. Twelve waggons were removed, and forty eight burned by the enemy. Colonel Crabbe arrived on the scene and pushed the enemy northwards after severe fighting. The casualties in both engagements were two officers and eleven men killed j one officer and forty seven men wounded.

A SUCCESSFUL BOER RUSH. A detachment of a hundred men be longing to Colonel Doran’s column, operating near Calvinia, in the west of Cape Colony, was rushed during «the night. . The men retired on their base, losing three officers and seven men killed, and seventeen men wounded.

BOER LOSSES FOR A WEEK. Lord Kitchener’s weekly report shows the Boor casualties/to have been Killed, 69; wounded, 17; prisoners, 574; surrendered, 57. > THE MEAT CONTRACT. The Hon. W. P. Reeves, AgentGeneral for New Zealand, in the course of an interview, said he had been given to understand that the meat contract enables the War Office to insist that all. meat supplies under the flew contract shall be British or colonial. •» MISCELLANEOUS.

Mr Kruger is calm and hopeful, and confident that the Boer leaders and generals will not solicit peace. He continually exclaims “ God is with us, and will give final peace,” * Dr Leyds, in an interview, said recent advices from South -Africa were quite reassuring. The war would last a decade if necessary. ' The Boer delegates in Europe are taking steps to inform the commanders in the field of the exact significance of the Notes ot Dr Kuyper, the Dutch Premier, and the Marquis of Lansdowne, British Minister for Foreign Affairs. Colonel Wing’s column has killed three and captured thirteen Boers at Brugspruit, on the Delagoa railway, about sixty miles east of Pretoria. The National Scouts captured ten Boers, including Cornet Van Zhyl, at Haenertsburg. Vanniekerk’s commando tried to set fire to the Brakpau collieries, forty miles north-east of Johannesburg, but were repulsed, losing two killed. The. Right Hon. W. St. J. Brodrick, Secretary for War, staled in the House of Commons that the United Kingdom has supplied sixty thousand horses for the war, the United States seventy-seven thousand, Australia twenty thousand, Canada eleven thousand, South America twenty-six thousand, and Hungary twenty-four thousand, while ninety thousand had been captured from the enemy. A farmers’ guard at Bloemfontein captured Cornet Combrink and nine of Dutoit’s men. Commandant Dutoit has died of wounds.

Speaking at the enthusiastic mass meeting held at Capetown for the pur* pose of repelling the calumnies on the British troops, the Hon- Thomas Graham, in the course of his speech, denounced Sir Henry CampbellBannerman’s barbarous methods ot speech, declaring that it was unfair to prosecute for sedition in South Africa while viler treason in England was allowed to go scot-free. ! General Hubner, son of the late Baron .Hubner, for _ many years Austrian Ambassador in Paris, after some months spent in South Africa, declares that the calumnies on the troops m regard to the concentration camps are infamous. The whole conduct of the British civil and military authorities in South Africa, he says, has been extremely and exceptionally humane. Latest. SURPRISING THE BOERS. Colonel Oudsuop, in command of a composite corps, surprised Pofczietsr’a laager at Bhenosterspruit, and the Free Staters' laager at Kanliagsfontein. Thirty-six were captured, including Potgieter, who was in his shirt sleeves.