Letters from the Front.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 158, 4 June 1901, Page 3

Letters from the Front.

The following extracts from a letter from Trooper Sauer of the Sixth Contingent will be read with interest. The letter is dated April sth trom Pretoria. Travelling from East London they were delayed four days at Burghersdorp on account of the line being blown up. Then, in hourly danger of another explosion, they journeyed on, small arm ammunition being served out, but no attempt was made on the lino, the only Boers seen being 180 prisoners captured in sight of the train. Trooper Sauer was astonished at the ruggedness of the country as far as Bloemfontein and wonders, after seeing the immense number of troops on the line of communication, guarding stations and bridges, that there are any available for fighting at all. He considers the ' war justifiable if only to open up such a fine country as has been lying waste all these years. The soil looks good, and in soma places as far as the eye can reach is one vast plain, with perhaps only a mined farmhouse and a small garden. They had some trouble with the railway guard, who would not obey instructions, but the stationmaster at Tcise River promptly sent him under arrest to East London, and there was no further trouble from this source. Leaving Queenstown, they passed through a swarm of locusts, which literally blackened the air. At Burghersdorp they saw General Hector Macdonald, and also the place of General Gatacre’s reverse. Bethulie railway bridge was blown up and they had to cross on the traffic bridge. They had no stoppages to speak of afterwards, passing Springfontein, Bloemfontein, Kroonstad and the Vaal, and arriving in Pretoria on Friday at midday, having left East London, 700 miles distant, on the previous Saturday. It puzzled Trooper Sauer to know why the Boers did not make a stand in such u strongly-fortified place as Pretoria. He gives an example of the names on the shop signs : ‘‘ Bautcetenskuiduuisweren.”