The Transvaal.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 108, 14 February 1901, Page 1

The Transvaal.

London, Feb. 10. Kruitzinger is still retiring northcast. Two hundred Boers who were at Oatlandsstatidn, southeast of Graafreinet, fled at the approach of a British force, and abandoned many horses, saddles, and rifles. Burghers of the Orange River Colony everywhere are indignant at' the barbarity of De Wet in shooting the envoys of the Peace Committee. Sir A. Milner and LieutenantGeneral Forestier-Walker inspected 7500 Capetown City Guards, including artillery, cavalry, and cyclists, and warmly complimented the guards on their appearance. Colonel R. H. Davies, of New Zealand has recovered and resumed duty. Field Cornet Steynberg, a Loyalist of the Graafroinet district, offers to bring 50 land owners to join the defence force to resist the invading Boers. Before evacuating Petrusburg, the British destroyed the supplies in the town, and collected 3500 horses and cattle, and took them to Kimberley. Piet De Wet has appealed to Christian De Wet to use common sense and recognise that the struggle is hopeless, and that it was better for all to yield and be loyal than to try and win responsible government, otherwise the Boers would be impoverished and degraded in condition to a mere working class. He is convinced that the other Transvaal generals wculd submit if Christian did. February 11. Colonel Pilcher and Major Crewe, on opposite sides of the Tabacsberg Range, engaged a large force of Boers commanded by De Wet on January 31st. Colonel Pilcher’s lyddite shells dispersed the Boers, who, streaming down the range, encountered Major Crewe’s force of 700 men with three 15-pounders and a pom-pom. Louis Betha, with 2000 men, at daybreak on February 6th, attacked Smith Dorreen at Both well. Twenty-four British were killed, and fifty-three wounded. The Boers loft twenty dead on the field, including General Spruit and two field cornets. Many were severely wounded, including General Raademeyer. The Boers wrecked three more trains on the Natal-Johannesburg line. Lord Kitchener reports that the British movement m the east has thoroughly upset the Boers calculation, and has created a regular panic.

Botha with 7000 men, 800 waggons, and a very large number of stock is going east. De Wet and Steyn have issued a proclamation to the effect that they intend to enter Cape Colony and give the farmers a taste of the sufferings of the war. Kruger is still promising Botha European interference. Major Brereton, commanding Steynburg, has called in all tha males, farmers, and others, from 16 to 40 years of ago, lest the enemy should commandeer them, and he has intimated that if they disobey the order and join the commandoes, or if they are found in the ranks of the enemy, they will be guilty of high treason. A disloyalist at Kimberley has been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, and a line of £3OO, for uttering insults against the late Queen, and disfiguring her portrait. Major Haig, in command of a strong mixed force, is driving the midland commando northwards past Aberdeen. Tho Boer invasion ol Portuguese territory was intended to facilitate the landing of an Austrian cargo of contraband goods at Kosie Bay. The British and Portuguese vessels are alert. February 12. Captain D. H. McLein, of the Imperial Yeomanry, an Australian, who rowed in the Oxford University boat races in the eighties, has died of fever at Johannesburg. There was a sharp fight at Klippraat Junction, when Kruitzingera commando killed six of the South African Light Horse and the 7th Dragoon Guards, and wounded 8| and captured 15, , >