St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-03-21
WAR IN THE TRANSVAAL.

London, March 20.-The British pub
probably is more interested in the ia
of Mafekng than it is in the more signi
cant events which are taking place
the Orange Free State. Mafeking is t
last of the beleaguered cities and its ga
liant defense by the half-starved garrisC
has aroused sentimental feeling th'
quite overshadows the other news fro
the front.
Two relieving forces are pushing the
way toward the town. One under Co
onel Plumer has been for months work
ing its way south until now it is a
Pitsani, and Plumer's scouts have pene
trated to within II miles of Baden
PowelIs trenches. On the south fore
is working north from Kimberley Fri
day this force had reached the Vaal riVel
at Fourteen Streams.
Plumer's force is nearer and is more
likely to reach the goal first, but 1t Il
doubtful if he has enough supplies with
him to be of much benefit to the besieged'
1t is from the south, apparently, that
the real relef-food and medical stores
must come.
General Kitchener's presence at Kim
terley was proof that some large opera
ton was in progress, as the arrival OF
the Royal Irish regiment there on ST.
Patricks day is mentioned incidentally
in press dispatches, and there is good
reason TO believe that Colonel Peakman's
mounted force is the advance guard of
strong infantry column which has been
called up from Belmont, De Aar and
Cape Town. Fourteen Streams, where
Methuen arrived Friday, is barely a
quarter of the way from Kimberley to
Mafeking.
General Roberts has troops to spare
and will probably not take the risk of
sending weak column, especially as
Mafeking can be made the base of an
effective turning movement on the Boer
positions on the Witwatersrand ridge
entirely apart from the urgent necessity
for relieving the garrison, which has
made a gallant defense
There is a group of officers serving |
under Colonel Baden-Powell whose de- |
liverance will be eagerly awaited in
London, where they are we'll known
But of more Importance from a military
point of view is the apparent utter col
lapse of the armed resistance in the
Orange Free State. Hundreds Of thou
sands of burghers are laying down their
arms. Dispatches from Cape Town and
indicate that they are in
creasingly ready to cease the contest.
Organized military resistance in the
southern half of the republic is almost
ended.
OF course the action of the Free Staters
does not mean the end of the war, but it
greatly simplifies it's military problems
1t seems entirely probable that the Beers
will resist most determinedly the in
vasion of the Transvaal, and unless a
peace party arises in Pretoria sufficiently
strong to give up the unequal contest,
many more lives must be sacrificed be-
ore Roberts enters the South African
'trongholds of johannesburg and Pre-
.oria- 1t Is entirely possible that the
of the troops towards Mafe-
King indicates much more serious pur-
pose than merely it's relief. Lord Meth
len's presence at Warrentown and the
'apture OF the nearby passage of the Vaal
Vt Fourteen Streams may indicate an
Ldvance in force on Pretoria by the way
f Rustenburg. This might start from
fourteen Streams or Klerksdorp, and
5ould probably coincide with an adj
ance via Bloemfontein and Natal.
hus Lord Methuen would be given the :
nance to redeem his reputation, as has ,
cen done with General Gatacre 1t
lis idea were carried out Pretoria would
. threatened from three directions, from
from Fourteen Streams
nd from where Butler has large army
force the Drakensburg passes and
lsh on along the Dundee-J Johannesburg
ailway, or through the Laings
The Boer losses since the beginning of
ne war are stated in one Of the Pretoria
ispatches to be 1920 officers and men, not
General Cronje's force. The
otal losses therefore now figure IN to
bout $500, or nearly 9OOO which, allow
ng that the Boer force at the start was.
t the outside and all told, 10 900 men.
mounts to close on one-seventh of their
lumber. From what is left must be de-
Iucted a proportion for the defections
Tally reported from the south of the Free {
tate; 1t will therefore probably be not I
ar from the mark to say that the Boer
army IN the field is now less than in {
october last by from 10 900 to II, 900 men,
That leaves still, perhaps, from As, 900 to I
1900 seasoned fighters with their ar !
lllery counting the captures from the
British, undiminished. ,