The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-10

To the left and the ShropShireS and Mar
shall's Horse. supported by battery. al
so made attack on the enemy, who
finally fled, leaving many wounded, and
the passage was cleared
The Beers on the mountain are now
Smelling the outlying camp, necessitating
removal to safer place.
Beers May Emigrate.
NEW YORK, May "A Pretoria letter
TO the World, dated March sd. says:
Although the majority of the Beers
still believe that the independence of the
republics will remain after the war, hun
dl eds of them are taking the opposite
view and are casting about for suit
able country to which they can emil
CRATE. State Secretary Reitz said to-
day: IF the English take those repub-
lies and raise the Union Jack over them
[ will take my family to America" And
scores of other burghers have said the
same thing to me. Many of the older
where there are thousands of square
miles of fertile territory, and thousands
will emigrate to other countries.
An old Boer in the Free State several
days ago asked concerning the rates OF
passage to America. You see, saiu
he, I'VE are going to fight hard for our
country, but if it is taken away from us
We want to go somewhere where there is
a republic"
The friends of President Kruger say
that if the Transvaal loses her independ-
ence he will spend the last years of his
life in Holland or Germany.
Strength of Boer Army.
NEW YORK. May "A Kroonstad cor
ange Free State) letter to the World
dated March 18th, says
Observers who have been in the Trans
vaal since the war began have all along
insisted that the Boer army has never
been stronger than 10000 men In the
early part of January Major d. T. Lang,
a man of many years South African mil
1tary experience, and a member of Lord
Roberts body guard, gave me a critical
estimate of the Boer forces, which he
placed at no less than $4,000. In the in
terview l had with President Kruger
two months ago, Dom Paul said that the
combined forces of the two republics did
not aggregate 10000 men. In the lists OF
wounded and dead which are posted in
al! public places by the Red Cross au-
thorties, L had seen men numbered S.
900 and 1880, and from this fact l was
led to believe that the President purpose
ly underestimate the Boer strength.
Since that time 1 have seen almost the
entire Boer army and have attempted to
ascertain its real strength, and count and
figure as ! viii, cannot believe that the
Beers ever had more than 40. 900 men in
the field.
Commandant General Joubert last week
issued an order that every burgher be-
tween the ages of IL and GO must report
in lager at one of the camps, and as "a
result of this order every able-bodieu
man is in the field. Yet no amount of fig
uring will show that the Beers have any
thing like 10000 men pitted against the
British 10000 or more.
In the early months of the fighting
say up to the middle of January-the
Beers had less than 25, 600 men actually
in the field, for at Christmas time the
War Office in Pretoria made a careful in
quiry concerning the number of men in
lager, for the purpose of sending Christ
mas gifts to them.
The replies from the different COM
mandants, generals and field comets
showed that there We're about 2S 900 men
at the front and that number of presents
were sent out to be distributed. After the
distribution had taken place and each
man had received one gift, il was found
that more than 1900 presents remained
undistributed.
Since February many hundreds of men
have been sent to the front, and at the
present time the Boer armies are as
strong as they ever can be unless the
volunteers continue to come in from Del
agoa Bay. the only way by which the
strength of the army can be increased
now that every Boer in the two republics
is at the front somewhere.
There is no such a thing as roll call in
the Boer army, nor is there any method
by which the actual numbers in GER
tam commando can be ascertained with
any degree of certainty. and consequent
ly there is no one who is able TO give the
exact strength of the army in the field
today.
These figures appear ridiculouslv low
when it is considered that after almost
six months fighting the British army of
ten times that size has been able to over
run only small part of the republics
territory, but it must be taken into &C
count that every Boer is an army unto
himself, that every one is mounted on
fleet horse which can sustain itself on
the grass it finds anywhere, and that
there is no extensive commissariat to
prevent the Boer from lashing up TO the
enemy. delivering a hard blow and es-
Gaping in time to prevent the enemy from
doing much injury to him.
Tangled Tales from Thaba n'Chu.
LONDON, May at is difficult to un-
raVel the tangled stories comint, from