The age-herald., 1901-10-19
Supplies for the B0ers.

The Boers are confronted by want of numbers, of food, and of arms and ammunition, and their sources of SUD- ply have long been a mystery. It seems, however, that their recruits came from Cape Colony, and this ex- plains why that large district, full of Boers, has been put under martial law, and also the strict policy that is to be enforced against Cape rebels.
 The food supplies of the. fighting Boers is another difficult problem, but it is plain that no little of it comes from those at home who are fed by the British. A correspondent of the London Times thus explains another source of supply:
 There has been many cases during the last months of the war, when train wrecking commandos, while deliberately destroying the line in order to secure l supplies of arms and ammunition for | themselves, have allowed the supply trains for the concentration camps to pass unmolested. In fact certain sections of the line have been kept open by an arr engagement, of course, without official sanction-with the train -wrecking com mandos. It has been an understood con- dition between drivers and guards and the train-wreckers, that as long as cer- tain supplies, such as coffee, sugar and -four. were dropped at certain convent ent spot on the line, that particular sec tion of the line should not be tempered with. And these burghers have never once broken faith when the conditions have been complied with.
 As for ammunition and arms, it seems the Boers do not depend upon either captured supplies or upon stores that they had buried, but that they are receiving from time to time new shipments. The St. James Gazette re- gently printed the statement of a man who had been engaged in the contra band trade. He said:
 Landed in the ordinary way and sent from the continent of Europe-chiefy from France, Austria and Holland. Some months back many tons of stun were landed on the coast of Namaqualand and trelxked over the country and right through the British lines to the com mandos Another time we got dozens of cases of Mauser cartridges through Ma tai; they were landed from boats on the Mazeppa rocks and carted up in or dlnary wagons without question from anybody. More cases of ball cartridges and rifles were put ashore in St. Lucia bay. But most of the gun-running has been done by way of Delagoa Bay and Beira. The work of getting the stuff overland Is somewhat tedious, but up to the present don't think the Boers have lost a single case of cartridges. How are the stores shipped down?" That I never learned, but from what I heard I believe they are taken from the Euro pean ports on trading vessels, and on the high seas transferred to small craft that meet them by arrangement. I should say that the goods are not landed in the watched harbors. but are put ashore in creeks and on the beach in lonely places where there is nobody to watch. I was told that for days and nights no government craft were seen. and the risk of running cargoes is practi- cally nil
 It will thus be seen that as long as lhe Cape rebels continue to flock to the Boer standards the war will go on in struggling manner. There is lit tie possibility of success In it,>and al- most endless cruelty presents itself at every turn. The truth is, the Boers are too obstinate to know when they have had enough. They lack the sense of the Spaniards.