The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-06
LORD ROBERTS FORCES
MARCH into PRETORIA
Beers Capture Battalion of British Infantry Near
Lindley Despite Methuen'S Hard March.
After Preliminary Fighting BOtha Offers to Surrender
TranSyaal Capital Without Further Resistance.

London, June Sat 2 o'clock this
afternoon, eight months after the dec
laration of war, Lord Roberts entered
Pretoria.
While London was celebrating this
triumph. there came a dispatch from
Lord Roberts announcing a disaster
to the Thirteenth battalion of the I'M
periaI Yeomanry. The message is as
follows:
Pretoria Station, June 3, 1855 p. m.
I regret that the Thirteenth Imper-
ial Yeomanry had to surrender to a
very superior force of the enemy, on
May 81, near Lindley
"On receiving information of the
battalion being attacked, I ordered
Methuen TO proceed with all speed to
the march, on the Hebron side of
Kroonstad. and half an hour after the
receipt of my telegram on June I. he
started off. BY 10 a. m. of the follow
ing day he had marched fOrty-fOur
miles in twenty-five hours. but he was
too late to rescue Colonel Spragg' s
yOmanry. Methuen attacked the Beers,
who were between 1000 and 5000 strong
and after a running fight of five hours.
!
1T is a very regrettable circum-
stance; but trust it viii not be very
long before the Irish YeOmanry are
released from captivity
Tells of Preoria's Surrender.
The dispatch from Lord Roberts.
telling Of the surrender of Pretoria is
as follows:
Pretoria, June 5, 12:55 p. must
hot n r~f-x ,7or no
beaten back from nearly all the posi-
tiOns they had been holding and Ian
HamiltOn's mounted infantry followed
them to within 1900 yards of Pretoria,
through which they retreated hastily
Delisle then sent an officer with a flag
of truce into the town, demanding its
surrender in my name Shortly before
midnight / was awakened by two Off
GERS of the South African republic,
Sandberg, military secretary to Com
mandant Botha and a general officer of
the BOer army, who brought me let
ter from Botha. proposing an armis-
tiee for the purpose of settling the
terms Of surrender.
L replied that | would gladly meet
the eommandant general the next
morning, but that I was not prepared
to discuss any terms as the surrender
of the town must be unconditional. I
asked for a reply by daybreak. as 1
had ordered the troops to march on the
town as soon as it was light. In his
reply, Botha told me that he had de-
cided not to defend Pretoria, and he
trusted women, children and property
would be protected. At 1 a. N. today,
while on the line of march, I was met
by three of the principal officials with
a flag of truce, stating their wish to
surrender the town.
1T was arranged that Pretoria should
be taken possession of by her majesty's
troops at 2 O'Clock this afternoon.
Mrs. Botha and Mrs. Kruger are
both in Pretoria. Some few of the
British prisoners have been taken
away, but the majority are still in
Waterfall Over 100 of the officers are
in Pretoria. The few 1 have seen are
looking we'll"
Queen Drinks to Roberts.
Queen Victoria, surrounded by the
Duke and Duchess of York, Princess
Christian, Princess Victoria and many
other notables of her court, drank to
the health of Lord Roberts and the
army at Balmoral last evening. A
great bonfire, lighted at her majesty's
command, blazed on CraiggOwn noun
tain, illuminating the country for miles
around The nation joins in the toast,
clarifying Lord Roberts and turbently
rejoicing in his victory.
Lord Roberts postscript announcing
the loss of the Yeomanry battalion
came too late for the public to know
it last evening. The newspaper com