Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1900-06-08
pgfEncrs OF PRETORIA.

the attack On Pretoria. 1t Is taken
for granted that her majesty's forces
will not march into the Boer capital
without the hardest fighting OF the
war. Nobody who has not seen them
has any comprehensive idea Of the
elaborate Preparations the Beers haze
made for the defence Of their capital.
Not long ago man now In New. York,
who has inspected more than once the
Notifications. OF Pretofia, and who
negotiated the purchase OF many Of the
guns which will be used in defending
he Boer capital, told to reporter OF
The Sun about the Pretoria fortiAca-
tions and the plan Of defence should
the British invade the Transvaal, and
this is what he said:
There will be great, surprise for
everybody, and particularly the British
army. when Pretoria Is attacked.
Then will be seen defensive warfare,
which, / believe, will never have been
equalled. You must remember that
we didn't take this war unadvisedly
or In hurry. We had been prepar-
ing for II ever since the Jameson raid,
and for the past two years the prepa-
rations havebeen pushed with all care
to compilations.
when the war began the Beers did
not hope to keep the British from the
Transvsal as long as they have and
they expected to have to do their
hardest fighting in defending their
capital Accordingly the plan OF de-
fence was allsiigured ont and the de-
tenders have been ready and waiting
and not one OF them has taken any
part in the fighting SO far. Pretoria
~ practically surrounded by hills.
Between the hills and through them
are narrow defiles. Every hill about
Pretoria 10 fortified by the best modern
guns that can be made by the best
European gunmakers, outside Eng
land. The guns chat were not con-
siderod good enough for the defence
Of our capital are the guns which we
have been using in the field. There
fore you may get some notion Of the
care with which the Pretoria guns
were selected They were mounted
under the direction OF skilled military
engineers from the works where they
were made and I very much doubt If
there are better or more solidly
mounted guns in any Notifications in
the world.
'TThese guns have been so placed
that they command every approach to
the capital Each gun is supplied
With Il or, sN tiaa Sau|asal hplS
al least II fears. And. what's very
much to thu point, these ammunition
vaults are fun, not a shell having been
taken. from them since the war began.
Owing to the topography OF the coun.
try, q comparatively small force OF
nrtillerymen can serve these guns and
they viii be So protected that one life
will be the equal OF about ten, were
the guns placed in less favorable
natural positions. Moreover, the ma
ture Of the country is such that we
have been able to place the guns so
that they will not be easily located by
the enemy. We have figured on being
able to annihilate a larger army than
England has in South Africa at present
and still not be obliged to surrender.
"But the fortifying of our hills is
not the oaly fortifying we have done.
We have paid particular attention to
the defiles in these hills. through
which an invading force would have
to send good part of its troops. 4
These defiles have been mined and,
should-the necessity arise, should a
British force attempt to pass through,
the explosion of these mines will fol-
low and England will then be able to
count the cost of wa. Our home
ground Is not so very large, but is
quite large enough, we believe, to de-
fend and preserve our capital
but it must be remembered, Of |
course, that the first act in the de.
fence Of Pretoria will be the destruc-
tion of johannesburg. This will only
be done as a last resort, on account OF
the value of the property there. But
johannesburg cannot be defended to
advantage. Little or no attempt has
been made to fortity 1t. Therefore az
soon as the British get within striking |
distance of our metropolis, we viii |
first cut of the water supply and then,
when tho enemy is within the town,
u will be destroyed by fire aud by
dynamite. s,6 - ..e \
COT course, the question of supplies
witt enter into the defence Of Pretoria.
The defenders have made provision
for long siege, and, $50 long an the
crops do not fail, so long sctthere is
no drought We can hold out indefi-
nitely, II adrought comes then we
viii suffer. II it continues long
enough may be we would be com
PEELED ia. surrender. But we have
these questions and we
have come TO the conclusion that, in
the event OF drought, the SBoer
would be living to tell about il long
after the Briton was dead"
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