THE BOER WAR.

Waikato Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1034, 29 August 1901, Page 2

THE BOER WAR.

LORD KITCHENER’S WEEKLY REPORT. (Received August 28, 9.5 a.m.) London, August 27. Lord Kitchener’s weekly report states that 32 Boers were hilled, 24 wounded, 139 taken prisoners, and 185 surrendered, The majority of the captures were made northwards of the Magaliesberg, west of Pretoria, including one of Kruger’s nephews. Some 116 rifles, 9000 rounds of ammunition, 245 waggons, 286 horses and 6615 cattle were also captured during the week. THE UNIONDALE ENGAGEMENT. (Received August 28, 9.5 a.m). London, August 27. The Uniondale engagemeut, in which a squadron of Hussars bad a sharp engagement with Scheeper’s commando, was fought on difficult ground. Besides other losses ten Hussars were captured before Bcheeper’s men retreated. Colonel Beatson is driving Sheeper’s force northwards. A CONVOY ATTACKED. MORE PRISONERS. NEW ZEALAND CASUALTIES. BOERS STILL ACTIVE. London, August 28. Lord Kitchener reports that a convoy from Kimberley to Griquatown Avere attacked on Saturday near Rooikopje. Of the Yeomanry Avho were escort* ing the convoy nine were killed and 23 Wounded. The Boers eventually were repulsed. Colonel Sir Henry Rawlinson galloped eastward of Edenburg and captured 18 Transvaalers. Twenty-one Boers surrendered at Obfontsnek confessedly as a result of Lord Kitchener’s proclamation. Of the Seventh New Zealand Contingent Lieutenant Liece and Sergt.Major Lowe were killed at Verienging on Saturday, and Sergt.-Major Lockett and Private Helms severely and Lieutenant Whittey slightly wounded. Small bands of Boers are appearing about the Drakensberg, on the Natal frontier. There is a general tendency to invade the Cape Midlands and shift westwards. REBELS SENTENCED. EX-MINISTER ARRESTED. BOBES QUARRELLING. London, August 28. Two rebels have been sentenced to be shot for treason and murderously firing on troops at Camdeboo, Cape Colony. Four others were sentenced to penal servitude for life in the Bermudas. J. Merriman, a Cape ex-Minister, has been arrested on his farm at Stellenbosch, and remains there on parole. Later. Merriman’s arrest by the military occurred at night, and was due to certain proceedings on his farm. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent states that Lord Kitchener’s proclamation is causing angry quarrels, some Boers wishing to surrender. A considerable number of one commando eastward of Bloemfontein have been arrested and disarmed. HOW CANADIANS HELD PIN CHER CREEK. Probably but little of the best iu the war has been written, But now and again we get a glimpse of splendid tenacity aud courage which suggest the wonderful drama the campaign has made. For instance, in ‘ The Canadian Contingents,’ by Sanford Evans, we get anticoouot of the corporal and two men of the Canadian Mounted Rifles who held a post near Honingapruit Station for eight hours against CO Boers. *lt was long odds, three men against 60, but these Canadians from Fincher Greek were stout-hearted fellows who did not know the meaning of the word fear, and rattling good shots into the bargain. For eight hours they fought, the number of their opponents increasing as the hours went by, until there was close on 100 burghers pouring iu a fusilade of rifle shots at the three men who held the crossing over the railway line. Shortly after noon Corporal Morden was seriously wounded with a bullet through the chest. He never gave up, however, aud kept on firing until, later on another Mauser bullet crashed through his brain. About two o’clock another one of the little party, Trooper Kerr, was wounded. At that time the force consisted of two wounded men and Corporal Miles, who was iu charge of the outpost. About half-past two Kerr was shot through the heart, and a little later Corporal Miles received a bullet wound in the shoulder. He did not give iu though for all that, but continued firing, and used up the cartridges of his dead companions after his own Ind been exhausted. About three o’clock in the afternoon a train arrived at Houingspruit station 'from the north, aud the Boors withdrew and attacked the train, The garrison, however, managed to keep them at bay until a train with troops arrived from Kroonstadt, when the enemy, as usual, retired. Then it avus that I had time to go back ami see what had become of the little outpost on the railway line south of the camp, which I knew had been heavily engaged all clay. I found Corporal Miles lying behind a little mound of earth, suffering from a severe wound in the shoulder, and a short distance from him the dead bodies of Corporal Morden and Trooper Kerr, both of whom had been first wounded and, afterwards killed by the second shots. Though serious, Miles’s wound was not by any means a fatal one, and he wua at once taken to the hospital, at Kroonstadt, from where he was sent to Cape Town Inter on. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the gallant conduct of these three men. But for their splendid work our position would have been completly surrounded, and the chances are the whole garrison would either have been killed or captured.