The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-29
An Invasion of the Transvaa1 Re-
public Improbable Before the
Early Part Of May.
100000 B0ERs UNDER ARMS
BRITISH TROOPS TO BE LANDED AT
BEIRA, DELAGOA BAY.
Continental Protest POssible-Steyn's
Reply to ROberts-Defcnsc Prep
arations at Pretoria.

LONDON, March %, 5:l5 a. m.-Lord
Roberts has sent ten thousand troops to
Glen, ten miles north of Bloemfontein. on
the railway. This is a preliminary to the
general advance. Immense quantities of
stores have now been accumulated at
Bloemfontein, and Lord Roberts's infantry
is seemingly about to move. An impress
sion, which can be traced to the War Of
fee. is abroad that the advance will be-
gin next Monday Boer observation parties
are near Bloemfontein, but Lord Roberts
has 135 miles to cover before reaching the
great position which the Beers are pre-
pairing at Kroonstad.
Moving ten miles a day is probably the
best he can do with field transport. There
fore. he can hardly engage the Beers in
force for two weeks. The reconstruction of
the railway behind him may even delay
ar invasion of the Transvaal until May.
Meanwhile all the important towns in the
Free State within Lord Robertss reach
are being garrsoned. Thaba Nohu. Philip
polls. Fauresmith and Jagersfontein are
thus held.
Sir Alfred Milner is touring in the dis
turbed newly acquired territory, investi-
eating conditions and arranging the ad-
ministration. He Is understood to be get
ting materials for report to Mr.. Chamber
lain concerning plan of civil government.
The military authorities at Bloemfon-
tein have discovered i'm a Free State gov
ernment chest realiza5le securities worth
f5OoOoo.
The Bloemfontein correspondent of the
Daily Telegraph, I'm a dispatch dated March
%, says: 1T is matter for regret that
owing to the state OF the roads and of our
horses, Commandant Grobelar's comman-
do of 5000 men from Colesberg and the
southern districts. got away north by
travelling day and night close to the
Basuto border before our force could hope
to get near them. The latest news is that
the Beers have forty thousand men still
around the Natal border. Although tents
and stores are reaching here, block on the
railway is delaying arrivals from the south
considerably. 1t is asserted that 200 Beers
are massed at Kroonstad."
The Foreign Office, according to the
Daily Chronicle. is arranging with Portu-
gal for some thousands of British troops
TO be landed at Beira. and sent by the
Rhodesia Railway from Massi-Kesso to
Umtali A permanent arrangement is un-
derstood to exist for the use Of this route
to transfer the Rhodesia police. The possi-
bility of foreign protest is suggested by the
Daily Chronicle
Among the items cabled from Pretoria
Is statement that prominent residents
there object to defense of Pretoria and
desire that President Kruger should retire
to Lydenburg. 1t is alleged that the prin-
| cipal buildings at Johannesburg have been
undermined by order of Kruger
The only word from General Butler is a
report of the officers who have recovered
from wounds and who have returned to
duty, which list includes the name OF
Lieut.. John Churchill. brother of Winston
Churchill.
Two Boer prisoners escaped from the
camp at Simonstown March 26. The sick
| ness there is unabated and many of the
prisoners are in a serious condition.
Gen. Sir George White sailed from Cane
Town for England yesterday.