THE WILY DE WET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 161, 14 December 1914, Page 4

THE WILY DE WET.

♦ HATRED OF THE BRITISH. ATTITUDE SETCE BOER WAS, ' The nioßt notorioua of the South Afri- | can rebels is the Hon, Christian Rudolf : De Wet, J.P., ox-Minister for Agriculture [ in the Union Ministry, and former memj her for Vredefort, in the Orange Free , State, who has just been captured. He \ was born on October 7, 1854, in the ' Switliileld district, and is the son of the } late Jacobus De Wet, of Dewetsdorp, , who for many years was Field Cornet of [ the district. General Do Wet married, , in 1873, Cornelia Margarita Kruger, of * the Bloemfontein district, by whom be . had 10 children. He was Field Cornet of • , Heidleburg district in 1881, in which caw I parity he was present at the battles of . ingogo and Majuba. He transferred his i allegiance in 1883 to the Transvaal Ke« . publican Government, and represented' . Lydenberg in the Transvaal Volksraad ~ in ISBS. Returning to the land of bis . father, he represented Dewetsdorp dig* [ trict of Bloemfontein, in the Orange -' Free State Volksraad from 1889 until i 1897. He was never a popular man in, , politics, being of a rugged, determined, ' and spiteful character, but he appealed i to the imagination of the .Boers as as i ideal military leader. He was promoted 1 to General and Commander-in-Chief of ; the Orange Free State forces from th« x ' ranks as a burgher in the Heilbron com* ■ mando, shortly after the two Republics ; made war, in 1899, against Britain and the Empire When the Boer forces unit* ' ed he was appointed commandant at ' Ladysmith, Orange Free State, whence he proceeded to the relief of General , Cronjc, as second in command, receiving full command of.the mixed commandoi —formerly under Cronje—after the latter surrendered to Lord Roberts He never attempted to put up a decisive battle against the British troops* but always kept them on the move hunting his commando, doubling back to out off small bodies of men, and sniping when possible, from cover of their main bodies. He made a point of rushing . through wire fenceß in the vicinity of blockhouses at night, sometimes rounding up cattle and using them as a screen through openings in the fences that were - cut by his men. Although he waß one of the Signatories of the Voreeniging Peace Conference, ho ill-disguised hie (hatred of the English, and often told Wl former adherents that he regarded h'J tatli of allegiance as a justice of tbiftptace, and as a Minister of the Crown, as a mere joke, perpetrated eo as'te mislead the trustful British. As a director .of the South African Co-operative Union, ho is said to have used all Ws influence to unite Africanders socially, politically, spiritually, commercially, and) jj-ofessi mally agaimt English-Bpeakinfl people, contending that the Boers were Cod's chosen people, destined to inherit '. the African continent, from the Cape to Cairo. When Dr Sir Leandcr .lamcson at the South African National Convene j tion suggested that 'lie Orange River Colony should he renamed the Orange ' Free State, just as it was prior to its) annexation by Britain, tho wily old guerilla warrior applauded/ the* dootorM chivalry and generosity, adding in an undertone to a colleague that .Tameeon had again upset tita Englishmen's' aspplc v cart by resurrecting the name of the Republic and thus opening old sores and new ambitions. Christian De): Wet is reputed to he obsessed with tlje idea -tihat no human army can either»" ■wound, kill, or capture him. Saving that belief in'hinwolf, he caaeasily play >'§ en the mvpewtitton, of