STRATEGY OF THE FIELDMARSHAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6708, 29 May 1900, Page 2

STRATEGY OF THE FIELDMARSHAL.

Londox. May 28. Lord Eoberts's steady march and enveloping movements are proving irresistible.

All his troops are on full rations, the commissariat arrangements being admirable.

On Friday Major-General Broadwood's division crossed the Vaal and held Wonderfontein Dritt, being followed on Saturday by Major-General lan Hamilton's forces.

Lieutenant-General French's cavalry has secured an excellent flanking position and invaded the Republic via Lindeque's Drift.

The Boers have left the "Vaal, and are now concentrating at Klip Reversberg, near Johannesburg. The Times states that the rapid change in disposition by the forces along Lord Eoberts's front and the seizure of the Vaal drifts at unexpected points, totally disconcerted the enemy. Four thousand burghers vainly awaited the appearance of Major-General Hamilton's mounted infantry at a drift to the north-west of Heilbron.

While Lieutenant-General French's cavalry was crossing at Lindeque's Drift, a force of artillery under Colonel Henry shelled the enemy's rearguard railway train, nearly saving the railway bridge, only the northernmost span of which was destroyed by the enemy. Many Free Staters refused to enter the Transvaal when the Boers retreated northwards over the Vaal.

Lord Roberts telegraphs to the War Office that the vanguard of his army just crossed the Yaal in time to prevent the destruction of the collieries on the northern bank of the river.