CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 29 March 1902, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal. NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN BOER LEADERS. Six staft officers, including Lord Kitchener’s aide-de-camp, are accompanying General Shalk-Burger’s party to Kroonstad. It is rumoured that the delegates favour a general surrender. Mr Fischer, one of the Boer delegats in Europe, interviewed at Amsterdam, said that the latest direct accounts showed that the burghers were plentifully supplied with provisions, ammunition, horses and arms. They had no dread ef the winter, and Mr Steyn’s courage was undiminished. At the instance of General Shalk Burger the Boers will observe next Saturday as a day of prayer for peace. SPIONKOP. A brisk correspondent is proceeding in the newspapers over the Spionkop incident. General Buffer denies that he commanded at Spionkop. He declares that to write art aCCoiint of What really occurred would be contrary to arnly regulation. Mr Balfour maintains that General Buffer was Commander-imChieF, and hints that the documents covering the affair are likely to be published. General Buffer expresses the hope that his words will be published without manipulation. Mr Balfour retorts that the only manipulation of General Buffer’s despatches was the excision of a sentence criticising Lieutenant-General Sir Chas. Warren, and the only omission from Lord Roberts’s despatches was made solely with a view to sparing General Buffer’s feelings and to maintaining his reputation. Latest. A THUNDERBOLT FOR PROBOERS. Hearing of General Schalk Burger’s mission came as a thunderbolt to Continental Boers and pro-Boers, who had speculated extravagantly on the concessions obtainable after the recent British reverses, and even declared that the British invited General Schalk Burger to discuss concessions. The retention of Lord Milner in the High Commissionership, they had declared, represented an obnoxious and real obstacle to peace. The Brussel’s newspaper Independence Beige says the defeat of Delarey is most unfortunate, neutralising all the moral benefit accruing on Lord Methuen’s captuie. The columns north-east of the Orange Colony captured 25 Boers. At Lord Kitchener’s instance, Natal is sending an additional 500 mounted men to the front.

Boers at Brussels assert that Steyn and De Wet will insist on complete independence, and that Schalk Burger and Botha with accept autonomy. Sir Tronbman Goldie, interviewed after visiting South Africa, stated that the amnesty to the rebels was the chief obstacle to peace. It was hoped the Government would at least insist that every rebel fighter should be disfranchised for life. It was imperative to abolish the duality of language. One hundred thousand ' troops would be required for years to maintain peace. SUCCESSFUL MOVEMENT AGAINST DE LA REY. A combined movement against General De la Rev by British cavalry without guns or impedimenta resulted in the capture of a hundred prisoners, three fifteen pounders, and two pompoms. The operation against De la Key was commenced by nine columns at dawn on Monday. Extending from Command:) Drift, on (he Vaal river, in a northerly direction through Zwartbank, Gestopfontein and Geluk to the Lichtenburg blockhouse line, the columns commenced moving rapidly eastward, keeping a continuous line with the object of driving the Boers against the blockhouse lines or forcing an action. Co[onel Kekewich’s column captured the guns and nine prisoners. General Walter Kitchener captured eighty-nine prisoners, forty-five carts and a thousand, cattle. Some additional prisoners were captured on the blockhouse line. The troops covered eighty-nine miles in twenty-four hours. The columns under Colonels Rochfort and Rawlinson have not yet reported their results. Columns operating in the northeast of Orange River Colony captured twenty-five Boers.