The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-28
A FIGHT AT LADYBRAND
The Beers Are Now Reported Massing
at Biggarsberg.
THE SHELLING OF MAFEKING RENEWED
Sickness Among Boer Prisoners on Transports
is Increasing. Simonstown is Threatened
With an Epidemic of Typhoid.
Constructing Trenches.
(By the Associated Press.)

London, March 2S.--(4 A. M.)-The
Beers are having little good luck and
are showing some boldness again, as
raiding party estimated at 400 is believed
by the British forces at Warrenton TO
have crossed the Kimberley Bloemtontein
wagon road Monday and to have headed
for Jacobsdal, with the intention of cut
ting the railway ten miles west.
Commandant Olivier appears to have
gotten his five thousand men and % miles
OF wagons into rugged country. where
he can make an easy rear guard defense.
Charles Williams, the military expert,
says:
"If this column gets through substan-
TALLY Commandant Olivier will have car
ried cut the great feat of the war, seeing
that he ran every chance of being ground
between the upper milestone Of Lord Rob-
erts' army and the neither milestone of
the broken Basuto frontier
His escape is attributable in part to the
wCrn-out condition of the British cavalry
horses. Lord Roberts transport appears
TO have been badly dislocated by the loss
at Riet River before Cronje's surrender
of the wagon train. and in addition to this
the army with which he purposes to ad
vance toward Pretoria is nearly double
that of the earlier rapid movements.
1t is given out at Cape Town that Lord
Roberts advance may be delayed for
months. 1t seems positive that he intends
10 go to Cape Town to meet Lady Roberts,
who is due to arrive there in ten days.
The War Office has issued another table
of British losses. showing an aggregate Of
1862. which does not include 1904 who
have been invalided home.
NO IMPORTANT MOVEMENTS.
London. March 81. -Reconnais.
sances OF slight importance continue
to be the only feature OF the war i'll
South Africa.
Advices today from Cape Town say:
"Rains are general throughout
South Africa, and rivers which have
been dry for years are being flooded
Many camps are transformed into
swamps. This will still more mill
tate against an Immediate British adj
vance.
sickness among the Boer prisoners
on the transports is increasing. Three
deaths occurred March Goth. The
bodies were buried by the British
with the Transvaal flag on the cof-
fins. the leading Dutch of Simonstown
attending the funeral typhoid alone
claims 100 victims among the prison
ers, and the population of Simons-
town fear an epidemic.
THE Bund at a meeting at Paarl,
March Goth. attended by several mem
bers of the Cape Assembly passed re-
solutions regretting that the Cape
Government was not consulted before
the war and declaring that any set
tlement which did not respect the in
dependence of the republics would be
detrimental to the highest interests
of the British Empire. Mr.. Hargrove.
the chief speaker, prophesied another
war within six years unless indepen-
dence was granted, and Assemblyman
Marais characterized the war as a
continuation of the jameson raid"
Michael Davitt arrived at Lourenzo
Marques March oath
a dispatch in the second edition OF
the Times from that port declares the
Beers are using natives from the
mines to construct trenches around
Johannesburg, adding that the mines
are expected to be shut down owing
to the military demand for Kaffir
labor.