The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-18
UNCONFIRMED RUMORS
OF MAFEKINC'S RELIEF
The Only Thing Needed Now to Fill Great BrltaIn'S
Cup Of Happiness to OVerflOWing.
Much Trouble Experienced With the BOer Prisoners at
Cape TOwn-RObertS Hero of the Hour

London, March 1S.-It is persistently
reiterated that Mafelzing has been re-
heved, but the war Office has no con-
f1rmation Of the rumor.
A dispatch 10 the Exchange Tele-
graph company from Cape Town says
it has been decided to send only the
Transvaalers to St. Helena, the au-
thorities finding it difficult to prevent
conflicts between the Free Staters and
| the TranSvaalers.
Colonel SchioL, who was captured in
| Natal in the early part of the war, has
| a special sentry at his door to prevent
him from doing himself bodily vio-
| lence.
! Amidst the festivities Of St. Patrick q
/ day, London has been listening today
/ for word that Mafeking is relieved. II
! Is remarkable that the revival of .this
/ holiday, which puts St Patricks here
/ after on an equality with Primrose day,
/ has been the occasion of the first real
/ gala day since the declaration Of war.
/ Christmastide was gloomy indeed in
/ comparison with tOday's merry-mak-
ing, and the only thing needed was the
news of the relief Of besleged Mafeking.
Cause For Rejoicing.
There is much in the situation in
! South Africa 10 justify rejoicing, how
ever, for the rapid pacifcation Of the
] Free state leads people Of Great Britain
| 10 DeIleVe that they have a statesman
as well as a strategist in the hero of
| the nOur, 'Bobs.'
( With railway communication open in
! the Cape and the morale of his army
! at It's highest, England is now ready to
4 trust the cOmLnander-in-chief to com
plete the remainder of his task. in his
own way, confident of his ultimate sue
/ cess.
So far as the Free state is con
/ cerned, although the Beers are en-
trenching at the VaaI river. the i'm
/ preston at Cape Town tonight is that
/ the war is virtually over.
The Transvaal officials are said to
/ have vacated Laing's Mex and Vry-
burg, but the rebels are unwilling to
/ enter the TranSVaal, being anxious to
/ trek homeward. No one would be
much surprised if a great spread Of
/ this contagion occurred in the next
/ fortnight.
/ started homeward on the hospital ship
/ Maine yesterday, cabled TO the com
mittee that she regards it a compli-
/ ment TO the United States that the
I Maine was The first ship to leave since
i Lacy smith vas relieved. SGere are
! twelve officers and 153 non-commfs-
! stoned officers and men aboard the
Maine
Secret of the War.
! Spencer Wilkinson reviews the war
news for the past week for the ASSO-
| ciated Press as follows:
THE great secret Of war is person
! atty" Napoleon said, in war the big
| thing is not men, but man." and the
] Il -,
| South African war is due to the pres
ence and power Of one man-Lord Rob-
/ erts.
/ Seven years ago I spent many weeks
with him in India, accompanying him
as his guest on his last tour Of inspec-
I ton Of the Indian armies. I saw for
| myself how 200, 600 men WOrShiped him
/ Since his return from India there have
! been influences striving to keep him
/ in the background. The disasters Of
/ the winter gave him his opportunity,
/ and now the world sees what he has
made Of it.
When Sherman set out to march
I through Georgia he asked General
| Grant for an old chum, Cavalry Officer
| Wilson, I think, and when Wilson came
/ he sat UP half the night talking to
Sherman, who. before retiring, said:
! Wilson, I'll tell you where Grant beats
/ all the rest Of US. He don't care a
/ damn for what he can see the enemy
doing, and it scares me like hell
Roberts Like Grant.
Roberts is like Grant He is too big
/ to be disturbed at anything, and he
/ quietly does just what he means to do.
/ Accordingly, his movements have
| knocked the Beers out of time.
| Dreyfontein turns out, by the lessons
on both sides, to have been one Of the
hardest fought actions Of the war. It
has finished the Free Staters.
| Roberts entered BlOemfOntein on
| Tuesday, and the result has been the
complete collapse Of Free State resist
/ ance The railway opened without diff
ficulty to the Orange river, the rebel
/ lion in the Cape collapsed, the Free
StaterS turning round wholesale.
| Meanwhile the Transvaal Beers SOL
EMMY declare that they have made
Biggarsberg impregnable, but Butler
has no need to run his head against
| Biggarsberg. Lord Roberts, by ad-
vancing along the Vaal river, would
turn Biggarsberg, and the Beers must
| then be between two armies.
Hope For Intervention.
The TransvaaI Beers may fight on in
the hope Of foreign intervention They
| have no other chance, as either British
army outnumbers them, and they can
not escape, being between two fires,
except by perpetual retreat.
| But though I can see no chance for
them except through intervention, /
| expect the Transvaal Beers will fight
until the last, as their animOSity 10 the
| British is deep and rooted
Intervention hardly seems likely, as
| the British navy is an unknown guam
tity, and the British nation quite de-
| termined.
The fate of Mafeking is uncertain.
All recent reports show that despite the
great hardships the garrison will hold
out: that the besiegers are growing
fired and timid. and that relief move
ments are in progress north and south,
but the news is indefinite.
The situation is summed up in the
Associated Press latest dispatch that
the relief Of Mafeking may be expected
at any time
|