THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8, 22 February 1900, Page 27

THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

THE GLENCOE TIE,

A London draper showß in his window a greenish tie, which is labelled : ' The Latest : the Glencoe.' The verdant hue of the article is evidently meant as a compliment to the prowess exhibited by the Dublin Fusiliers.

GENERAL BUTLEU.

The 11 rsti m Jndeprndent of Devonport has the following pointed comments on the manner in which General Butler's opinions with regard to South African affairs were treated by the War Office authorities — Dreyfus aroused the wholesome sense of justice of the whole world. He was at any rate permitted the privilege of opening his mouth though his enemies believed him not a word. General Butler remains with his lips sealed, yet every development of the campaign justifies the view that is attributed to his prescience His mistake has apparently been that he held a strong view that, before negotiations were commenced with the Boers, our army should be in possession of Natal territory. This showed him to be a statesman us well as soldier, and events have proved that it is only the highest type of soldier who is qualified to be statesman. Is it really true that General Butler recommended that the fighting strength in South Africa before the commencement of hostilities should be at lea^t 100,000. and that Lord Woleieley dismissed hih calculation as a chimera ' And was that the real cause of General Butler's exchange ? The questions imperatively demand an answer.

lUI>H AND *COTCH AT THE IHONT

Of non-commissioned officers and men killed at the Tugela River. General Bulkr. in his despatch, returned the number killed at 7<>, but the published list contained 137 names, more than half of whom belonged to Iri*h regiments, the Connaught Rangers suffering the most severely of all the regiments engaged. The unanimity with which all the commanders in South Africa order Irish troops to attempt practically impossible feats is most peculiar. From the battle of Dundee down to that of the Tugela Irish troops have been placed in the very heart of the hottest fighting, and though they have never flinched, they have, of course, suffered very severely. Somewhat similar treatment has been meted out to the Scotch regiments.

LORD ROKEH'IVS EXPERIENCES

Lord lloberts's experiences of active service have all been associated with India. He served throughout the Mutiny, including the siege and capture of Delhi, the relief of Lucknow, the operations at Cawnpore, and the defeat of the Gwalior contingent. It was during the Mutiny that he received the Victoria Cross. 'J his was conferred upon him tor hid valour in rescuing a standard at Khodagunji. Lord Roberta's name is. however, prominently associated with the Afghan Wars of IH7B and ISSO. His famous march ♦o the relief of Kanriahar is one of the most brilliant episodes in his career. Over 300 miles were accomplished in 20 days, and at the end of the march Lord Roberts defeated the enemy outside Kandahar. The great march received the warm admiration of Moltke. Skobcloff. and all the chief military authorities on the Continent. Another fact connected with the sending out of Lord Roberts to Africa is the circumstance that in ism, after the defeat of Majuba Hill, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief and High Commissioner in South Africa. Fifteen thousand troops set sail with him for the Cape, but before they could reach the scene of operations in Natal, peace was concluded by Mr. Gladstone and the Boers.

KIMBERLEY AND ITS MINKS.

In connection with the relief of Kimberley on Thursday last by the British force under General French, who, by the way, is a Fermanagh man. the following report on the town and its mines by Mr. Stowe, the United States Consul at the Cape, will be of special interest : — Kimberley Mr. Stowe found to be a city of 35,000 inhabitants, most of them attracted to the place by the greatest diamond mines in the worH. The general manager of the mines, Gardiner F. Williams, is also the United States consular agent. ' I waa pleased to find,' said the consul, ' that many of the most responsible positions in the mines are filled by Americans. The United States also furnished most of the 2000 horses and mules used in the mines and some of the 200,0001 bof beef and 25,0001 bof mutton consumed by the 15,000 natives and 25.000 whites employed in the mines.' 1 1 was not at all surprised to see American machinery here,' Mr. Stowe remarks. ' The immense driving gear of a pumping engine " made in England" has to be sent to Chicago to have the cogs cut. The company is operating an ice plant, made in Chicago, and three more have been ordered, each with a capacity of five tons a day, and 20,000 cubic feet of cold storage besides a complete dynamite plant, with an American to manage it. The 150 miles of railroad in and about the mines are laid with American rails, and every tie and sleeper is of California redwood, which in this country is the wood par excellence for this purpose. Three ships from California have recently arrived with cargoes of redwood and Oregon pine. The ice company sells its product for half a cent a pound, while in Cape Town the price is four cents. All the water used in and about the city flows through pipes made in the United States. I was pulled to Kimberley by an American engine, and there are several others in use in Cape Colony.' ' No company in the world,' declares Mr. Stowe, ' does more. It has built the village of Kenilworth, covering SCO acres and occupied by white employees at a nominal cost. Water and light are supplied free, and there is a clubhouse, a library, reading rooms, athletic grounds, a park and vegetable gardens, with vines and fruits of all kinds in profusion.' The natives are housed in compounds. 'On the four sides of a large square are erected one-storey huildings of corrugated iron, opening to the centre of the square. They are divided into rooms which hold twenty persons, who sleep in bunks three high. Within each compound is a store which supplies the natives with clothes, food, etc., at very reasonable prices. In the centre of the square is a large swimming pool, well patronised. Adjacent to the compound is a hospital, free to the sick and injured. Extended over the whole enclosure, which occupies several acres, is a wire netting to prevent the throwing over of diamonds enclosed in tin cans, etc., as was once the natives' practice. Outside the compound and ten feet from it is a barbed wire fence ten feet high, with fourteen strands of wire. An underground passage leads to the mine shaft, and the men are examined as they return from work. Within the compound I visited (there are three), were 3500 natives. The natives are under contract for six months and receive from one shilling to three shillings a day.' The Kimberley mine has often been described, but Mr. Stowe's account has the merit of freshness. • The mine,' he writes, 'is the crater of an extinct volcano. What is now a level prairie was once a volcano. Cropping out on the surface appeared a blue rock, which was found to contain diamonds. The mouth of the crator is 312 feet below the surface. They dug 300 feet lower, so that the mine is now b'l2 feet deep. The rock is elevated to the surface by powerful machinery and conveyed to the floors or level ground, at present occupying about 200 acres. Here it is left for a year to the action of the sun, wind and rains, until it decomposes and falls apart. It is then taken to the crushing: and washing machines and afterward to the pulsators, which separate it into different sizes and again wash it. Finally, it passes over shaking tables, covered with grease, which catches and retains the diamonds These are then washed in acids and taken to the valuator. Roughly speaking, out of 3,000,000 tons of blue rock three-fourths of a ton of dimonds are obtained. The valuator assorts the diamonds according to color and purity. I saw on this table the output of one week, worth £300,000. A syndicate of buyers takes the product of the mines.' Another writer gives the following additional particulars :—: — The arid and treeless wilderness— once known as Colesburg Kopje — upon which Kimberley is located, was formerly in possession of the Gnduas, people of a mixed Dutch and Kaffir origin, and it wis not until 18(57 that the existence within its boarders of the boundless wealth which has since made it famous was suspected. In that year, it is said, a Boer, Schalk Van Niekirk byname, secured from a youthful Kaffir a peculiar-looking stone with which he was playing. On becoming aware o? its commercial value he disposed of it to an Irishman named O'Reilly for £500. Thus encouraged, Van Niekirk invested £400 in purchasing another and larger stone from a guileless Kaffir warrior, and immediately sold it at Cape Town for £10,000. Then the murder was out. The diamond deposits became known. Adventurers flocked to Colesburg by thousands, and two yearß after Van Niekirk's ' deal ' came the opening of the mines, and the rapid building of a city in their vicinity. The city was named Kimberley, in honour of the then Colonial Secretary. The methods pursued at first in digging diamonds were rude and primitive, and the diggers had to contend against many disadvantages — especially against a depreciation in prices due to excessive haste in making sales. All that is a thing of the past, however. The digging — no longer a matter of individual enterprise — is done by machinery and over production is controlled by a consolidation of interests. At the outbreak of hostilities, the Kimberley mines were furnishing DO per ceiit. of the world's output of diamonds. The authoritative writer of a standard work upon this subject estimates that, thus far, nine and a half tons, or 40,000,000 carats, have been extracted from the mines at Kimberley — the value of this product, in the rough, being £60,000,000, and in the finished state, twice that amount

A TREMENDOUS I'IGHTEB, HUT KM A \l AKNANIMOTs O>M\rANI)EK. An English officer, a Major Graham, is alleged to have given the following description of General Buller to a Chicago newspaper. How much of it is the Major's and how much the reporter's the reader must judge for himself. — "General Buller is a man of tbe stamp of your Grant, first of all an aggressive fighter. He is disliked heartily at home. Officers under him have never liked him ; I don't myself. He is to have free hand in Africa, however. He is not bo much a strategist as a hammer and anvil. He cares nothing for men's lives, so he gains his point. God pity the Boers if, defeated in battle, their lines become broken. He would turn his artillery on their retreating mass and order his cavalry to ride through their rout without quarter. Personally, I would like to have seen a more magnanimous commander in South Africa, but his worst enemy can't deny that Buller is a tremendous fighter.' WHAT J,ADYSMITH Is LIKE. Ladysmith has (says a Daily (Jnonir/c correspondent) an evil reputation. Last year the troop-, here were prostrated with enteric. There is a little fever and a good deal of dysentery even now among the regulars. The stream by the camp is condemned, and all water is supplied in tiny rations from pumps. The main permanent camp is built of corrugated iron, practically the sole building material in South Africa, and quite universal for roofs, so that the country has few ' architectural features ' to boast of. The cavalry are quartered in the tin huts, but the Liverpools, Devons. Gordons, and Volunteers have pitched their own tents, and a terrible time they are having of it. Dust is the curse of the place? We remember the Long Valley as an Arcadian dell. Veterans of the Soudan recall the black sand-storms with regretful sighs. The thin red dust comes everywhere and never stops. It blinds your eyes, it stops your nose, it scorches your throat till the invariable shilling for a little glass of any liquid seems cheap as dirt. It turns the whitest shirt brown in half-an-hour, it crepps into the works of your watch and your bowels. It lies in a layer mixed with flies on the top of your rations. The white ants, eat away the flaps of the tents, and the men wake up covered with dust, like children in a hayfield. Even mule-, die of it in convulsions. It was in this land that the ostrich developed its world-renownel digestive powers , and no wonder. lIOsINESS JH BUSINESS. Various conjectures are being indulged in as to the probability of the Boer reserves of ammunition running out at an early date, and the cablegram stating that they were manufacturing their own material is of interest. Mr. Labouchere's opinion on the subject is, therefore, worth quoting. Writing in Truth, he says — 'With respect to ammunition, I should fancy that the Tran-vaal had enough to carry on the war for a considerable time The Boers do not seem to be quite such fools as many took them to be, whilst in all appertaining to military matters they appear to be past masters. It is not likely, therefore, that before going to war they did not estimate the amount of ammunition needed to carry it on ; all the less, as there was nothing to prevent them from buying as much as they thought they would need. Messrs. Kynoch seem to have supplied them with many of their cartridges, and thus Arthur Chamberlain (one of the firm) may be said to be fighting brother Joseph. Business is business.'