IRISH ADMIRERS OF LORD ROBERTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 94, 3 May 1900, Page 2

IRISH ADMIRERS OF LORD ROBERTS.

Auckland, May 2. The following latter has been forwarded to the Premier :—" At a meeting of Irishmen, held at Corom&ndel, the following leßolution was unanimously carried: 'Ti.at thin meeting ■ desires to rccoid its appreciation of th< prouDt manner in which the Ke» Zealand Government raised men foj service in the Transvaal nt a nos' critical peaiod of the Jiuupirc's history,"' Mr. Seddon suitably replied. The following letter was also seut to tlio Premier, t<> forward to Lord Roberts: —" To Roberts, FieldMarshal and Commander-in-Chief in the Transvaal.—Sir, —l have the honor to forward you a copy of a resolution passed at a meoting of Irishmen, viz.: ' The Irishmen of Coromandel wish to oiler our heartiest congratulations to L>rd Roberts and the Irish troops under his command iu the Transvaal on their success, their heroic behaviour, their energy, and the British pluck! displayed by them in the present war. I God bless ] reland and all her children.'"

WHY BULLKR FAILED AT VAAL

JiKANTZ.

in explanation of General Buller't. rithdrawal from Vaal Krantz in hie >enultiinate attempt to relieve Ladymi th Mr. Winston Ohurchill says : ' Tha Boers'covering army numbenat east 12,000 men, with perhaps a dozen jxcellent guos. They hold along thelinc >f the Tugola. what is practically a oon;inuous position of vast strength. Their superior mobility and the fact that they occupy the chord while we must movf ilong the arc of the circle enables them io forefront us with nearly their whoU Force wherever an attack is aimed, however it may bo disguised. There.ore there is no way of avoiding a direct issault, Now, according to Continental experience, the attacking fore* ihould outnumber tho defence by thrw io one. Therefore, Sir Hedven Buller should hive ,1(5,000 man Instead of this, he has onli 22,00(), Moreover, behind tho firs" iow of positions, which pwotioally run along tho udg« of an unbroken line o steep flat-topped hills, there isasecom row .standing back from the edge at m greit distance. Any attack on thi second row the artillery cannot support because from the plain below they an too far oil'to find the Boor guns, an< from the edge they are too close t< tho enemy's riflemen. The grouni is too broken, in tho opinion o many generals, for night operations Therefore the attacking infantr of insufficient strength must faci unaided tho fire of cool, entrench* riflemen, armed with oiaga/.ino weajwn and using smokeless |>owder. Alread' the Boers' position beyond Potgieter'" laps around us on three sides. VVlia if we should break through only tohavi the door shut behind ua( At leas two brigades would have to be left t< hold the line of ccmiiminicr>.tions. Tin rest, weakened by *<,vera! fierce am bloody engiiwmentu, would not b strong enough toell'oet tho relief."

CANADA'S LOYALTY

fjTIKKING SPEECH BY SIR WILFRID LAURIKR.

Witii only ten dissentient votes in a Bouse of 129 unpaired members the Dnmunou iloyso of (.'oiiiiiionM (says a Rental's from (»tt:uv:t\ voted ol the <Wijii course ii.dt !iß itcl.in g a Cunadmn eontWent to assort the justice of tl, e | ni p ol .j.,| a.i.so ii. Mouth Africa. Tire sitting , was remarkable for the demonstration, of loyal sentiment evoked by tl.ei Patfwtio and fervuHt address of Sir WM Umax: Hr. Sowmm, the!

Liberal member for Labolle, iftQuabeo province, offered an amendment to the motion for supply, insisting that th» ooui«e of the Government should not be considered as a precedent committing Canada to any action in future, and opposing any change 1H the political and military relation ofl j Canada and Great Britain unless initM ated by Parliament and sanctioned by | the people. He denounced the war a* unjust, The Prime Minister in the course of his reply, said : "My hon. friend has the same right to believe the war unjust as Mr. Morley or Mr. Courtney, but if my hon. friend believes the war <"< is unjust, for my part I am just as fully convinced in heart and conscience that there was never a juster war on the part of England than the present one. The Premier said: "My honourable friend dreads the consei quences of our sending fcaVa contingent to South Africa. Let dH tell him from the bottom of my heartl that it is full of the hopes I entertained for the beneficial results that will accrue from that action. When onr young j volunteers sailed from our shores to i join the British Army in Houth Africa, J great were our expectatiors that they 1 would display on these distant battle* " fields the same courage which displayed by their fathers whrntoßTj ing in the last century, In many breasts there w« a fugitive sense of f uneasiness with the thought that the first facing of musketry by raw recruits is always a severe trial. But when the telegraph brought us the news that such was the good impression made by our volunteers that the Commander-in-Ohief had .placed them in the post of honour in the first rank to share the dangers with that famous corps, the Gordon Highlanders; when we read that they had justified fully the confidence placed in them; thatj they had charged like veterans; that 1 ! their conduct was heroic and bad woe J for them the encomiums of the OomM mander-in-Ohief and the admiration of their comrades who faced death on a hundred battiefieldsfH all parts of the world, was there a nu9 whose bosom did not swell with pridjfl That noblest of all pride, that pure patriotism—the pride of ness that that day it had been rtveiQl to the world that a new power had been born in the West." (Vociferous cheers, in which both sides of the House joined.) The Premier resumed his seat amid cheers from both sides of the Chamber, in which none joined more heartily than the Leader of the Opposition. THE DEFENCES OK HtSSTOBIi. «^j

Mr. William Thompson, stoneousor, of Hawes, North Yorkshire, who a*. ' aisted to build the defences of Pntforii, i has given soma faterestiug pertjaulan J to an interviewer, "I workfd/ fee -aid, " for a long time at tha WDdunr if the forts and barracks tv' fatoria. ' Tne forts are very curiously oonatroe'jed* <nd are built in aeuootssion of square*, with passages running between and xmuiunicating doors. We worked bard all through 1895 at the forts. wlVh ire tremendously strong, and , *m« blowing up. Barly in 1895/ aH i«t nine months before the Raid, bigV tuns began to arriv,> from Europe, *nS. 1 •jontiuual prac&i.ig went on witiithes* guns, in which Resident Krugor took the greatest interest, I used to •*• him watch the firing, and one day ha fired a gu«f himself! Preparation ftr a >var with us hid been going on for years before the Jameson Raid, and I j tm satisfied, from what I saw duringgl my residenoe there, that there wejH long-designed plot to throw supremacy in South end of 1895 things crisif, and thon we he.irdTOtWflHHß had started to march on /Pretoria wiln sT • body of mounted police. Th* next tbinr I saw was Jameson and the olhir prisoners of the Raid brought hv» Pretoria on waggons. The Bterawanted me to toko up arms to rejfa the invasion they feared from Johannesburg, but I refused to take upaon* against my country, and was fdhr determinod to resist this, even if I had been shot. I saw men shot in the*, streets of Pretoria. I did not apppv* of the Raid, whioh was a terrible Mistake. But I believe the war wouldL have coino sooner than it did if not been for the Raid, whioh hadlp» effect of attracting the eyes of aHffce world to the Transvaal, and for aaie at least caused them to pause in these)ward preparations of war." ..■« *

The Hon. Charles Hill Tutor, A.D.C. to his Excellency theGovecfar has received letter* by the Suez Mil from friends, and also from officers of Phorneyeioft'a Light Horse, refenhiL to the death of his brother, the W . Neville Trevor, who was a lieutenaatvßal Thorneycroft's corps, and fell seven other brother officers in the 'astrous engagement of Spioa KopvV Colonel Thorneycroft states that Lieut. V Trevor's body was buried on Spion Kop, V where he fell with his detach- I inent, who were nearly «J1 killed «■ ■ wounded. It is stated that though bub 1 a short time in the corps be had shows " wonderful plunk and cheorfiilro«t, aw l lon the evenfiil clay of Spitm Kop had einied out, uuhesiUtingly, every order received, till he fell with hii rrra (Jolonol Thoineycroft initiated the deceased officer's relatives have- \ the condolences of every oftWr, no*- M •■ommuriooad officer, and nan in the/ regiment, and that as soon as the war ib over steps m\\ i, taken to plaea over the deceased, oflicer'a grave on hpion J\op saoh a memorial of his death and gallantry as the deceased's family - may approve. f Mr. J. R. KeMeU( formßrly in tl9 employ of Messrs. Ringland & Tliobus, hapier, but now a trooper in the NiW .^

South Wales Mounted Infantry in South Africa, in the course of a letter written to a friend, says: Oronja's big stand the sights were indeed terrible. Hands and feet of the deed Boers buried in the trenches were showing above the ground. | Where the bodies had swelled they pushed up the earth and presented a horrible spectacle. Blackened remains strewed the ground over a large area, and the shells fired by the British lay •bout in hundreds. The scene for its awfulnen strikes home an impression which will live an eternity. The four hours we halted there were hours of reflection."