INVASION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 121, 15 October 1914, Page 6

INVASION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

BY THE GERMANS. BOKRS FIGHT THE ENEMY. : The steamer Crewe Hall, which arrived at Sydney from Capetown direct recently, brought further news of the invasion of the Union by Germans from German South-West Africa. The Crewo Hall left Capetown on August '2B, and a week before tiiat date it had been officially notified in Pretoria, the capital of the South African Union, that German troops had crossed the bpri'.Sr in the jieigiboVhooil of Saitoh, and had invaded Union territory, where they were entrenching themselves. It was officially pointed out that the force could not be a large one, as the total strength of the troops and police in German South-West Africa was only 2171, andjhe total European population only about DOOO.

Iho units of the Coast garrison and tho active citizen forces in the Union were accordingly called out, and the municipality of Simonstown, tho British naval base in .South Africa, was placed under martial law, and it was directed that air-craft seen in the prohibited •area should he fired on without warn-

On August :!,•{ it was officially announced that the South African Mounted <>dles at tpmgton | lil( } n .| )l)r ted that a te!i «ram from Kakarnas, conveying a despatch from Keluiit Drift, had'been received. This stated that a (iernian patrol attached a small force of Africander refugees on an is'and in the Orange River. .As a result of the engagement the Germans were repulsed, and left behind one sergeant killed, one' wounded, and one prisoner, who surrendered rather than run the gauntlet of the lioer lilies.

It. appears that the (ienimns ordered t, "'. ;> . li '"' 1 '- S t " l,ilml <>ver their cattle Wi.ieh tliey i-on.si.leri d munitions of war. ■I l.e liners refused to do tins, and went 1"'..) laager on the island. • The Jioev wo.uoi. ]„,!,„.,[ t)l) . ir m e„f o ;|; to entrench e.el delend themselves, and the engagement which followed was sharp and decisive, though the numbers engaged were sniit'l.

-./ hob, where the Hermans invaded the l.mon, is about 111 hours' journey tn*i I pmgton by road, tho postal road Iror.l I'pington to VVarmbail enttiii" the (.e.ma,, border at Nakob. The (iernian and l.ntish police stations face each at this point, and there are usual- >' t.,ur or live South African Mounted i01.,.e at the. Uritisii station. -Not far fro'.rt Nakob is l.'kannis, when, the Herman:, have for some time maintained a strong im.itary post, which was under the command of a major of the German ariry. Siv months ago they were known to tave had from 300 to 000 regular cavalry at this point, the neighborhood be'"g oeed as a remount camp.