CAPTURE OF DE WET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 18, 13 January 1915, Page 5

CAPTURE OF DE WET.

PUR-SPIT BV MOTOR-CARS. I HOUSES TiIDDEX TO STANDSTILL. The Rand Daily Mail of sth December, just to hand, publishes a graphic Account of the manner in which the rebel General, Christian De Wet, was forced into surrender by the tireless manoeuvres of the first section of the Motor Transport, Column from the Band, under Colonel Brits. In brief, it was another way of applying what is known in America as tile "third degree"—the wearing clown of a person's nervous system until lie succumbs, and is prepared to do anything so that he may find rest from incessant physical and mental worry. Tho ability to get in touch with and surround De Wet's men was not by any means the end of Colonel Brits' scheme. In plain language, he wanted to avoid an engagement, and the consequent loss of life, and to make the rebels surrender peacefully. In the end, the motor contingent admitted that Colonel Hi-its' method, though exasperating for the time being, was the best. What he did was to dog the footsteps of the rebels, and to show them very plainly that any moment ho could rush in and capture them by force of arms. Time and again the rebels might have been taken with loss of life on both sides. Rebels were found lying asleep in the sand, where they had fallen from their horses. Their hurried departure from various sleeping places was noticeable. Every day they dropped portions of their kit, so as to lessen the weight upon their horses. There -were traces of half-eaten meals wherever they stopped. Then the end came. Colonel Brits evidently judged that after six days of this "bucketing" across sand, six days of night alarms, and tho constant consciousness of the enemy's proximity, the rebels would be in a fit state to fall an easy prey, and so it happened. On the last day of the chase the hearts of the motor contingent were lightened by Colonel Brits' announcement that he I would travel in the foremost car. This, I at least, looked like business. Colonel Brits ordered the mobile ! column to proceed straight towards the I rebels. His line system of intelligence, I both 'European and native, did not fail. ! The leading ear got within 200 yards of the rebels, and they put up the white flag. Some of them threw down their arms, and others toppled off their saddles in sheer fatigue. Do Wet himself kept his hands up, but the majority of thos<S wtio were captured were so utterly weary that they had no interest in the proceedings. All they wanted was to sleep, and sleep. They were, collected and put on the cars for tho return journey to gaol, and some of them were scarcely awake when tliey got to Mafeking by train. Be Wet had been ridimr two of the best horses in the country, borrowed from liis brother, one of tliem being of fine Irish hunting strain: but the best horseflesh could not stand tho racket of tho Ripid motor contingent. Eleven cars woro "in at the death." Many of them have been left in the veldt with their "big ends" burnt out, and generally disorganised. Indeed, it seems unlikely that many of the cars, which have been left stranded in the sand, will ever come back to Johannesburg. It will bo hardly worth while to recover them. At any rate, they will remain as mementoes of one of the most extraordinary pursuits in the history of warfare and rebellion.