CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, 10 April 1902, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

The Transvaal. A CAVALRY ENGAGEMENT. Some details have been received of the recent engagement at Bushmankop seventeen miles east of Springs. While three squadrons of the Dra* goon Guards and thirty National Scouts were reconnoitring at night they rode into a laager on Wilge river, and captured the occupants. Reinforcements of the enemy, however, put in an appearance, and delivered a determined counter-attack, the rearguard action being splendid. A hundred Boers also galloped from their Camp, and soon surrounded the British, who displayed great gallantry. Colonel Lawley, at dawn, saw that the force was hard pressed, and sent the Seventh Hussars to the rescue. A detachment of forty plunged into the thick of the fight, and cleared a way with their swords.

Eventually Colonel Lawley’a guns caused the Boers to retreat.

The British casualties numbered eight. The enemy’s casualties were sixty-two. Commandant W. Pretoriaus was captured. A body of men was sent out, and ascertained that the Boers had abandoned their position. TASMANIANS IN ACTION. At Taboschpoort the Tasmanians turned the flank of a force of 150 Boers belonging to Commandant Malan’s commando, and compelled them to retreat. The Boers, occupying a kopje, checked the pursuers. The Tasmanians again threatened to outflank the enemy, and the Boers then withdrew, the artillery shelling then. Commandant Rudorph and six men were wounded. GALLANT CANADIANS. Mr Chamberlain congratulated Canada on the heroism displayed by the Canadian Rifles in the action with De la Rey at Roschbult. He expressed grif at the losses of the regiment, asd heartfelt sympaty with the relatives of the killed. . STRENGTH OF THE ENEMY. A careful computation made at Pretoria shows the strength of the enemy in the field to be somatning over eight thousand. The only large commando is that under General De la Rey. There is no commando that is not liable to be disturbed at any day by pursuing columns. THE BUSH VELDT CARBINEERSOf the Bush Veldt Carbineers, now called the Pietersburg Light Horse, there remains only one officer who was a member of the original command. A soldier writing from Pretoria under date 27th February, says that Handcock and Morant were convicted on thirty charges, including the shooting of four surrenderors, whom they robbed of £4OOO. Morant also killed a sergeant for refusing to share the plunder, fearing that he would inform the authorities. MOVEMENTS OF TRANSPORTS. /The troopship Devon arrived at Albany on April 7 with the North Island section of the Ninth New Zealand Regiment on board. The transport Custodian on April 6 left Natal for Albany, conveying 23 officers and 460 men of the Fifth Victorian Mounted Rifles. BRITISH LOSSES DURING THE CAMPAIGN. Returns just published show that of 2937 officers and 68,311 men invalided from South Africa 7478 died and 5262 were discharged as unfit for duty. The total deaths in South Africa were as follows: — Officers. Men. Killed in action ... 5°2 5.“4 Died of wounds ... 176 i. 774 Died in captivity ... 5 97 Died of disease ... 313 12,403 Accidental deaths ... 24 543 x,020 19,921 1,020 Total deaths 20,951 DEATH OF COMMANDANT ERASMUS. On Thursday Colonel Pilcher’s column killed Commandant Erasmus near Boshof. KRUITZINGER ACQUITTED. The trial of Commandant Kruitzinger on a charge of treason is concluded. Kruitzinger was acquittedi and will consequently be treated as an ordinary prisoner of war. BOER LOSSES. Lord Kitchener’s weekly report shows that the I3oer losses as follow: —Killed, 17; wounded, 6; captured, 107; surrendered, 31.

GALLANT CANADIANS. As a result of the performance of the Canadian Rifles at Boschbult, recruiting in Canada has received a stimulus. Lord Roberts has cabled to Lord Minto, Governor-General of the Dominion, expressing high appreciation of the Canadians and regret at their losses at Boschbult. PROVIDING HOMES AT JOH NNESBURG. At the instance of Lord Milner and Mr Chamberlain a Mansion House Fund has been opened to provide a thousand Johannesburg, loyalists and refugee families with fifty thousand pounds' worth of household goods prior to their return to the Rand, to replace things which were looted. FORCES OF THE ENEMY. General De la Rey, who is in the Western Transvaal, directly commands 900 men, but is easily able to arrange for the concentration of aooo men. Commandant Beyers has a force of 400 men in the Zontpansberg district, in the extreme north of the Transvaal. There is a force of 400 under Commandants Albert and Opperman at Bethel, in the district between the Delagoa Bay and Laing’s Nek railways ; and small bodies are at Ermelo further east, and at Piet Relief, on the Swaziland frontier. Other small corps are between the Vaal river and Potchefstroom (west of the main railway through the Orange River Colony to Pretoria) and in the neighbourhood of Vereeniging, the station on the main railway just north of the Vaal. About 450 are scattered about the eastern part of Orange River Colony, between the extreme north-east corner and the districts of Ficksburg (on the Basutoland border), Zastron (in the south-east) at Brandwater. The raiders in Cape Colony number about 550, and are chiefly in the vicinity of Caries and Calvinia, the latter place being in the extreme west. ARTILLERY IN ACTION. De la Rey used three guns and a pompom on the occasion of the fight at Boschbult, in the Western Transvaal, in which he was repulsed by Major-General Walter Kitchener. The British artillery silenced one. of the guns. MISCELLANEOUS. Captain Ross, of the Canadian Scouts, captured Bows south of Frank-

The Brussels newspaper “ Independence Beige ” says the Boer delegates in Europe ought to remember that the Boer who would accept British rule are the majority; therefore; it is unfair of the leaders to sacrifice thousands of families to personal ambition. Many burghers at Pretoria have taken the oath of allegiance, including Casjar Kruger, eldest son of the exPresideut.