Losses at Mafaking.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 2, 5 June 1900, Page 3

Losses at Mafaking.

Probably if it were suggested that the Biifci3h Empire should raise subscriptions to compensate the inhabitants of battered Mafekmg tor losses ;they haw incurred, a few weeks would suffice to ooliecu a sum that would buy up the whole town. But there is no need to appeal to British sympathy and generosity, for the biave townsfolk will have their claims attended to by the Imperia. l authorise 1 * On March 27 a committee of the Mafeking Town Council and Chamber of Odi iii^erce drow up a letter requesting Colonel Baden-Powell to endorse the t'l'iims, and fco urge the authorities to consider them at onco. " We rc-specttully beg to point oat,'' ran the letter, '" that the town has been besingod tor lbi, dajs, during wlni'h tiuuo 1100 dA pourd shells and several taousßfjd sitatulft! projecLiloa have boen thrown into the town by the enemy, c luring great destruction and lobs of hfo." After referring to the pabviotie conduct of the townspeople, who bad submitted theiuaeh os without a murmur to military discipline, and many of whom had taken up arms to aid the Imperial force, the committee again utged that the matter should be speedily settled. " "With regard to damiigfd properties," it wrote. " m my ppople will be unable to repair or build until compensation is awaided, and any delay will consequently reeult in fuither lo<*s boen use of exposure to the weather, cessation of rent and stoppage o( business. We ask for an offioul intimation to the effect that compensation will be!, awarded sufficient to guirant.ee T he j.'ajifciag of the necessary loans." Colonel Baden-Powell replied that he would be hapry to forward the ! request to the Commander-in-Chief, and in his letter to Lord Roberts he expressed his appreciation of the conduct of the townsfolk. " The townspeople of this place," he wrote, " have taken up arms m its defence aa.d shown the fullest loyalty and dovotion to duty. They have submitted thornselves uncomplainingly to the restrictions of martial law, and undergone the hai'dships and dangeis incidental to a clo^e siogQ of biz months in a manner beyond praise. All have suffered losses, and miny of them are almost ruioedl." The business hka methods of the gallent Colonel are shown in another passage, in which he refers to the committee which he set up to assess the amount of damage. He had kept a careful account of the losses from tha beginning of th^ siege. so that he would be in a position to assist the Imperial Compensation Committee. Ho uiged that the people | should be officially assured that com pensation would be granted e,o that they might raise loanri and re-establish I their businesses. No doubt tbe mutual confnloiice between coiumnnder and citizens displayed in these l^tirrs v/ont far towards helping beleagueiod Mafeking to keep the flag flying.