MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 93, 25 April 1900, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Received 24, 10.20 a.m. Capetown, April 23. A man Earned Gertbaim, a Government horse contractor at Capetown, has been arrested for concealing three erc*ped Boer prisoners, who were disguised as clergymen. The Boers at Wepener are jubilant over a message received from Mr. Steyn, in which he announces that foreign intervention is certain, London, April 23. Lord Roberts has taken steps to reopen and develop a large trade with the Free State with a view of increasing the Customs receipts. A thousand Portuguese troops guard the Transvaal. frontier. Mr. Steyn has implored the burghers to resist, pending Mr. Fischer's efforts t) obtain foreign intervention. General Sir Charles Warren has bc-ei-appointed Military Governor of the! Free State. The Boers officially declared that they had captured recently thirteen thousand British and that two and a-lialf million Russians were invading India. Thu statements were apparently issued to stimulate their troops to persevere in opposing the British. Mr. Steyn threatens confiscation of the property of any who refuse to take up arms, All who refuse to figb.fc will jw «bot if captured,

WAR ITEMS. A New York cable of February 20 states that the British tramp steamer Bestormel, with a cargo of 3,000 tons of grain for the use of the British Army in South Africa, suddenly and mysteriously sank in the Delaware on the previous evening. Soon after she had left her berth at Philadelphia her captain anchored in mid-stream and went ashore. In a little while the vessel began to sink, and settled down so rapidly that the pumps were useless, and the crew were driven into the rigging. It is not doubted that she was scuttled, but nothing has yet been learned that would fix the guilt. The suggestion is made that the affair was the work of Boer agents or sympathisers, and the police are investigating the matter on this supposition. The captain disappeared after he went ashore, and efforts to find him have hitherto failed.

The Volunteer Gazette of Capetown I estimates that the total number of troops which have been raised in the colony amounts to more than 15,000. Roberts's Horse and Kitchener's Horse each number 600, and Brabant's Horse 1200. There are no fewer than 300 Hebrew soldiers (mostly officers) serving at 'present in the various British army corps in South Africa. Sir Samuel 1 Montagu has undertaken to provide the unleavened cakes required to enable his co-religionists to keep Passover week in accordance with the Mosaic law, and their distribution is being arranged by the Chief Rabbi. An "Ex Dragoon" writes:— " Having served under ' Silent French' I was not the least surprised to find that it was he who had relieved Kimberley. He is an example of still waters running deep, but he is one of the most business-like generals in the army, and a rigid disciplinarian. I heard him summed up by a trooper whom he had sentenced in a word or two to fourteen days' confinement in barracks: ' Old French don't bark a bit, but, crikey, don't he bloomin' well bite!'" The force on which Colonel Kekewich had to rely for the defence of Kimberley consisted of 500 of the Ist 'Battalion Loyal North Lancashire l Regiment, and 1500 men of the Kimberley Light Horse, Diamond Fields Artillery, and Kimberley Rifles, together with 5000 civilians forming the Town Guard. These levies were fully armed with Martini rifles—the colonial Government having omitted to furnish Lee-Metfords—and also bad six 7pounder guns. The Lancet war correspondent says; —" I should like to mention that the French Society for affording Aid to the Wounded,- having its offices in Paris, has sent out to Africa no less than forty-five handsome cases containing instruments, bandages, medicaments, books, writing paper, office furniture, and a host of very useful articles, for | the use of our hospitals at the front. These cases each contain different articles, but one and all are of the newest and most appropriate design, and are quite up to, if not ahead of, the times. Surely some public recognition should be made to our acrossChannel neighbors for their very handsome and timely gifts." During the fight on Spjon Kop the Boers continually disregarded the red cross flag, and (according to Mr. McMenamin, of thy London Daily Mail) during the first day's operations no less than six of the Volunteer [Ambulance Corps were killed and twelve wounded.

Captain Walter Levinge Thurburn, who was killed at Spion Kop, was in 1 the thirtieth year of his age and the ninth of his service in the Army. Born on June 13, 1870, he entered the Royal Fusileers from the Militia as a second lieutenant on September 9, 11891, received his lieutenancy on March 23, 1893, and was gazetted a captain on January 18, 1899. This was his first campaign.

There is a marked difference between the character of our ambulance waggons and those of the Boers. Ours appear designed to combine the greatest clumsiness and the least comfort with the minimum of sccomrnodation. It takes ten mules to draw them, aud they carry two men lyiDg down and several sitting. They jolt like a quarrymen's dray. The Boers' smbulancn?, on the other hand, are lightly but strongly built', and provide coafortable accommodation for eight men lying down, Being mounted on springs they scarcely jolt at all.— JReuter's Special Service.