The sun., 1900-02-27
THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
Colhmandant CrOnje's Men Find
Shelter From the Brit
iSh Shells.
BUTLER MEETING TROUBLE
Yesterdays Dispatches From Cape
Colony Show That the Beers
Have Evacuated Barkly
East and Have Re-
treated to LadyGrey.
BUTLER MEETING TROUBLE

London, Feb 26.-If the latest dis
patches from Paardeberg throw any
light on the situation, they show that
General Cronje's forces have far more
protection from Field Marshal Lord Rob
erts' heavy fire than the first dispatches
indicated. A special dispatch from
paardeberg, published in the second edi-
tion of The Daily Chronicle, dated Sat
urday, Feb. "a, says:
"A balloon has discovered the enemy
well covered by system of burrowins
in the river bank, which resembles n rab-
bit warren and affords shellproof posi-,
tions"
This, perhaps more than any other cir
cumstance, explains why what is looked
upon here as General Cronje's death
struggle is so prolonged. Thus it will
not be much Of surprise if some days
pass without being marked by the sur
render or annihilation of the gallant
band so overwhelmingly hcmmed in,
though tie closeness of the Investment
appears open to criticism. Small bodies
Of Beers apparently are able to make
their escape, causing comparison here
between the Beers methods of invest,
ment. with their quickly dug, surround
ing trenches. impossible barbed wire,
etc., and those of the British.
Lord Roberts Alternative.
AS General Cronje is reported to have
plenty of food, the plan of starving him
out can scarcely avail. so Lord Roberts
must either wait until his ammunition,
which is said to be short, runs out, OF
those of General Cronje's forces who,
according to rumor, are counseling sur
render prevail. SO indefinite is the in
formation that either of these alterna'
tives may occur at any moment, or in.
deed something other than the expected
may happen.
In the meanwhile Lord Roberts engi-
neers are sapping steadily toward the
Boer lager, and, according to a special
from Paardeberg, dated Sunday, Feb
%, the Gordon is gradually drawing
closer.
General Buffers march on Ladysmitf
is being marked by sharp fighting. A
Pietermaritzburg dispatch, dated Feb
26, says he is still heavily engaged in
fighting. In Groblersllloof General Bull
Ter seems to have discovered hornets
nest.
steadily advancing. Barky East is now
in their possession. according to dis
patch from that district, the Beers evacu
ating the place, retreating on Ladygrey
and wiring President Steyn for re-en.
forcements to prevent their surrender.
The Pretoria government proclaimed
Feb. % and Feb. 81 days of thanksgiving
and prayer, presumably i'll memory of the
battle of Majuba HILL
General Bnller, in a dispatch from
Colenso, dated Sunday, Feb. %, reports
that the British casualties Feb. 20 were
IL Killed and % wounded among the
Somersets and Dorsets, and that Feb. %
and Feb. % II officers We're wounded.
A Speech by Rhodes.
A dispatch from Kimberley dated Feb
pa says:
Cecil Rhodes, presiding mt meeting
of the De Beers company today, deliv-
cred remarkable speech, which was re-
ceived with enthusiasm.
''After announcing that the years prof
its of the DE Beers company amounted
to G2,000,000 he spoke of the chartered
company's transactions with De Beers
and said that the shareholders were di-
vided into two classes-imaginative and
ed their lives filling money bags that are
dissipated by their offspring on wine
and women and horses. To the latter
class he stated that the transactions with
the chartered company had closed salts
factorily, as the De Beers company own
ed all the diamonds wherever its charter
exists. To the imaginative he drew an
eloquent picture of these mines 100 years
hence, as mirroring European civilization
in the far south. The latter, he said, feel
glow Of satisfaction at the thought that
the immense riches taken from the soil
had not been merely devoted to the dec
oration of the fair sex.
Speaking, Of the war, he considered it
a puzzle why it arose. The Transvaal
and the Free State were not republics,
he declared, but oligarchies. and had been
long conspiring to seize British South AT
RIGA. Each government was simply q
small political gang. who humbugged the
poor Dutchmcn, appealing to their pa
triotism and dividing tho spoilS among
their coteries. Tho -Afrkander had been
working 20 years for independent Africa.
He said that former President Rctz of
the Orange Free State had years and
years ago made VOW that his only ambi-
tion in life was to drive England out of
Africa.
''After showing how Kimberley had
been defended by citizens. of whom 12O
had been killed or wounded, and thanking
General French for his gallant ride Mr..
Rhodes closed brilliantly, asserting, We
have done our duty in preserving and
protecting the greatest commercial asset
in the world-her majcsty's flag.