The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-11-30
THRILL OF ALARM
Sent Through England by Gable
From Lord Roberts.
He Announces Surrender of the
DeWetsdorp Garrison.
400 MEN AND TWO GUNS
Beers Expelled From LuchOff
After Five Hours Fight.
RumOrs of General Rising in
South Africa Are Heard.

London. Nov 3O.-Lord Roberts cables
from johannesburg under date of We'd
nesday, November %:
THE Dewetsdorp garrison, of two
! guns of the Sixty-eight field battery,
| with detachments of the Gloucestershire
regiment, the Highland Light infantry
and Irish rifles, 400 in all surrendered at
$50 p. m. November 2S. Our losses We're
Is men killed and AZ wounded, including
Major Hansen and Capt Digby. The
enemy is said to be $500 strong.
-Four hundred men were dispatched
/ from Edenburg to relieve Dewetsdorp,
! but they did not succeed in reaching
( there in time Knox Joined this force and
found DewetSdOrp evacuated. Seventy
five sick and wounded had been left
| there. Knox pursued, and is reported to
have successfully engaged Steyn and
| Dewet near Vaalbank, November 27
They retired west and southwest. Knox's
messenger failed to get through SO 1
/ have no Details
BOERS DRIVEN BACK.
Orange River, Nov. 3O.-The Herzog
commando. 500 strong, holding a splend
id position on a range of precipitous
kopjes near the village of Luchoff. COM
pletely barring the British advance at
tackled Col. Henry Hamilton Settles col
Cnn Tuesday morning.
After five hours hard fighting the
Beers were expelled from the position,
losing heavily. The British losses wera
small. owing to the fact that the British
adopted Boer methods of taking cover.
Colonel Settle occupied Luchoff Wed
nesday and learned that 500 horses had
passed through Tuesday for Dewet who
is reported to be in the neighborhood-
THRILL OF ALARM
London, Nov. 3O.-The disaster at
Dewetsdorp has sent a thrill of alarm
through Great Britain. The censorship
continues SO strict that there is no hope
of arriving at clear conception of the
actual position of affairs in South At
rica- For instance independent accounts
of the subsequent proceedings and the
recapture of DeWetsdorp give ample de-
tails, not omitting to announce the cap
ture of two Boer wagons and a quantity
of loot, but there is not the slightest
mention of the surrender of 400 British
troops and two guns which were not
even disabled inasmuch as the Beers
were able to use them against the Brit
iSh relief forces.
THE ubiquitous De Wet seems again
to have gotten away, and so far there is
no news that the captured British have
been liberated. Taking into considera-
ton the enigmatical military situation
north of the Orange river, the shoulder
ing rebellion in Cape Colony the rumors
that France has promised Mr.. Kruger
to press arbitration upon England If
he is able to obtain the support of Ger
many, and that Lord Kitchener, after
all, is not to be given the chief COM
mand in South Africa, the British gov
ernment will meet the new parliament
next week at an exceedingly 1nODDOT-
tune moment. No effort is made to con-
ceal the extreme irritation felt at the
adoption of a vote of sympthy with Mr..
Kruger by the French chamber of dep
uties. The morning papers are unani-
nous in declaring that no Intervention
of any kind will be allowed to change
British policy.
The Daily Mail publishes an inter
view with Mr.. Zedtsman, a loyalist
member of the Cape assembly, who is
now in England as a delegate of the
vigilance committee. Mr.. Zedtsman ad-
u1itS the gravity of the situation, but
saws he does not fear a general rising
although he thinks it may be necessary
to send troops in the most disafected
districts, Graf Reinet, Stekenbosch,
Worcester and Parrl, where mob riots
are likely to occur. He advocates the
proclama ton of martial law and ex-
presses the opinion that 1.-The only thing
which prevents the rising is the lack of
arms and ammunition"
The Morning Post, reviewing the situ-
sarhe surrender at Dewetsdorp looks
still worse in view of the suggestion
that probably half the towns we have
garrisoned in the territories of the re-
publics are in no better situation to re-
sist attack
"deplora BILE, unaccountable and, at the
present juncture, doubly unfortunate"
WOMEN AND CHILDREN DE-
PORTED
day. Nov 27.=Seventy Boer women and
children, whose husbands and fathers
are still fighting. have been deported to
Pietermaritsburg. Natal
NEWSPAPERS MADE RIDICULOUS.
New York, Nov. 3O-A dispatch to the
Journal and Advertiser from London
says:
Thef dispatch of Lord Roberts an
nouncing the capture by the Beers of
400 men makes the stories published in
the London papers during the last week
look ridiculous.
BY actual count DeWet has been cap
tured a dozen times The Boer forces
are completely routed regularly twice
daily with thousands killed and wound
ed Every foot of ground in the two
republics is pacified weekly, while prac-
ticalIy every dispatch ends with the
statement that only a few widely scat
tered bands of guerillas now remain
Every correspondent who showed the
slightest desire to tell the truth has
been banished and nothing but painfully
evidently doctored dispatches reach
England.
The afternoon papers. only six hours
before the news of DeWet's victory ar
rived. contained the most ridiculous
headlines announcing great victory
over DeWet-
Still Finding Bodies.