The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1900-05-24
RELIEF IS NEAR
FOR MAFEKING
England Anxiously Aw ats
Good News.
OTHER THINGS FORGOTTEN
Baaeu.Pawell aud His Bleaguered Force
Successfully Repeal Repeated
Attacks Of Beers.

A London special says: England
still waits with intense and almost
breathless interest for news Of the re-
lief of Mafeking. A crowd remarkable
for the number of men in evening
dress, and including many ladies, lin
gered around the war Office even after
midnight Thursday night hoping for
some announcement. Only reluctant,
ly did the people disperse, when the
lobbies of the war Office we're finally
cleared with the word that nothing
had been received.
One thing seems clear. The town
still holds out. We're it otherwise the
wires laid to the camps of the be!eag'
uers would have flashed the news.
Skeleton messages from Lourenzo
Marques, based upon information that
leaked out at the Pretoria war Office,
show that the stormers Saturday fell
into a trap. Colonel Baden-Powell
permitted them to seize one fort aud
he then surrounded and overbore them
before the large forces near at hand
perceived the stratagem. 1t was thus
that Sarel Eloff, President Kruger's
grandson, and part of his command
were taken and fifty Beers killed.
The Canadian artillery contingent
of the Rho5esian force is now reported
to have reached Buluwayo May 2ud.
The distance from Buluwayo to MAIZE
king is 400 miles. As the railway is
open al the way to Pitsani, twenty
eight miles from Mafeking, where
Colonel Plumer is, the Canadians may
yet take part in the relief.
General French, scouting north
ward, found the Beers in strong force
at Rhenoster spruit, thirty miles from
Kroonstad. General Botha, De Larey
and Oliver, with artillery, were hold.
ing the position.
President Steyn, according to one
dispatch, has gone to Pretoria An
other says he is q fugitive at Lindley.
The FREQ Staters are surrenderlng on
ail sides. A dispatch from Cape Town
says that proclamstions are being
printed there to be published on the
queens birthday, May oath, annexing
the Free State.
One of President Steyn's brothers,
who is prisoner of General Brabant,
says that the Free Staters will accept
annext:rn. Those who took up arms
the second time, he explains, had to
do 80 under threats of instant death.
Five hundred rifles have been sur
rendered at Kroonstad in excess of
the number of Beers who have taken
the oath of allegiance. Lord Roberts
has directed the British commanders
to receive all corners in a good spirit
and to issue to them passes to go to
their farms.
General Butler is pushing straight
ahead without opposition. he has
only lost five wounded during the
movement. Apparently he is aiming at
Laing's mex, which is the direct road
to the Transvaal, although he may
diverge to Botha's pass.
Michael Davitt. according to dis
patch from Lourenzo Marquee, is sod
to have advised the Beers, while he
was in Pretoria, that if they could
hold out until the presidential election
in the United States they might feel
'tpretty sure of Intervention"
At johannesburg the women are
forming a police corps, so as to release
every man for fighting purposes at the
front.
DR.. Archer, who was at Dundee dur
ing the Boer occupation, asserts that
there several hundred Englishmen
serving in the Boer forces who would
desert if assured of pardon from the
British. The Pretoria official list OF
foreigners shows 160 Englishmen who
are not fighting, but hold their resi-
dence in the Transvaal by special per-
mission. They are bank clerks, en-
pineers and shopkeepers.