The Transvaal.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 121, 9 March 1901, Page 3

The Transvaal.

London, March 5

Commandant Van Keenan, with 500 men, has laagered at Depldoof near Colesburg. The Boers have occupied- Rearston, forty miles south-east of Graafreinet. A number of Mafeking rebels have received sentences of three years, and each farmer who harboured rebels, has been fined £2OO, or in default two years’ imprisonment. Mr Bennett Burleigh says that the Second Australian C ontingoots, while willing to stay until relieved, are asking that the date of their return should be fixed.

March 6.

Botha has moved north in order to consult with Sohalkburger and Commandant Fouries.

A paper containing De Wet’s Cape invasion plan has been captured. Details of the capture of Da Wet’s 15-pounders on February 23rd, by a detachment of Victorian Imperial Bushmen, under Captain Marker, show that the Victorians saw the enemy’s two guns, but the British horses were so fagged that it was difficult to force them to a trot. The Boers pointed the gun and rammed homo a shell, but the pursuers went forward without faltering, and Captain Marker was close up before the cartridge was fairly inserted. The guns were thereupon abandoned, and the enemy were so demoralised that Captain E. Tivey, who greatly distinguished himself, pursued 3000 with only sixty men several miles.

De Wet and Steyn, with 500 followers, on February 24th looted every shop in Petrusville and broke the telegraph lines. On the following day Commandant fDrtzog and a band of 3000 men destroyed private property in Petrusville and sjamboked several white residents. Thorneycroft’s force of 700 arrived as the Boers were leaving, and chased and shelled their rearguard. March 6. Lord Kitchener and Sir A. Milner are at Pretoria.

An optimistic feeling prevails in (Mtfntg'W And .Pretoria as to the early Commandant Steenkamp, at Phillipolis, declared the contest hopeless, and he and his commando are returning to their homes. '' Mai’ch 7.

De Wet is scattering his followers into groups. Six columns are pursuing them. De Wet’s escape at Lilliefontein was due to n miscalculation, resulting in a coluam under Colonel Hon. J. H. Byng, which was operating in that neighbourhood, being temporarily but peremptorily ordered to proceed to Hamelfontein. This Was the psychological moment in the whole pursuit, and De Wet instantly seized the opportunity and crossed the river in Colonel Byng’s absence. De Wet usually outpaces the best column by five miles a day, and unless a commander strikes his rearguard immediately, it is impossible to maintain contact.