The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-30
A GREAT LEADER.
IS GEN. bELAREY WHO MADE
 METHUEN A PRISONER.
Instances of His Keen Insight-Got Away When Cronje Was Trapped j Of Huguenot Descent and
 Deeply Religious.

 It was a characteristic act of Conn., mandant Delarey that he sent his fallen antagonist back to klerksdorp to be att tended to as soon as he found that Gen eral Methuen was fit to be moved. The possession ill his hands of a live British General was not calculated to disturb the clear judgment of this rcmarka ble descendant of the old French Huguenots and lead him into personal reprisals.
 A record of the strategy and tactics or J. II. Delarey, the prosperous land- owner and leader of the burghers of 1lchtenburg for many years of peace, would probably furnish the most gaiu- able matter for scientific studentA of warfare that is to be found on either side in the South African struggle. But apart from military genius that re- calls the personality of some of hts an cestrat compatriots in the first French Republic. there is another side to Del- arey as d man.
 When the Boers struck their first blow In the western campaign by capturing the British armored train on the Mafe- king line and occupying Nryburg the Boer operations were directed by Dela- reX. When Nryburg, which lies out in the flat wholly unsheltered and was an easy capture. found itself without a con- stituted government the neutrals began to help themselves freely to the house. hold furniture of the British residents. who hurried south into Cape Colony. Delarey himself moved south with his Lichtenburg commando. collecting burgh- CTS as he went. and held the railway south of Kimberly. But as soon as he learned that proceedings which were not Tn accord with his sense Of the art Of war had followed the Boer ocupation he ordered every stick of property in Vry- burg to be returned to its rightful own CT and at once set up municipal sys- tenn which was found working in per- feet order eight months afterward, when the overwhelming numbers and widespread disposition of Lord Roberts columns moving north necessitated Boer movement back into the middle Transvaal.
 The bank manager at vryburg told the present writer after the British reoccu- patton that Delarey's system had workedNlike a perfect model and 1t does not appear that there is a single out standing private claim of any kind aris- ing out of his extemporized government.
 The last to leave Vryburg when the Boers came in were the half dozen off, icials of the Bechuanaland Survey De- partment. Delery conveyed them down with their families, handing them over from commandant to commandant, un- til thev were set free to take the train below Orange River. When they were seen at Cape Town none had any words, but those of personal regard to say of him.
 J. H. Delarey-pronounce his name De La Rey-is a medium-sized man of slight build. His head and features are large and his complexion looks pale against his full black beard.
 He is not only a man of extraordinary mentality. but he looks 1t, d natural mathematician and man of action. A quiet manner combined with extraordi- narily bright eyes. gives a sense of pow CT at first sight of the man.
 A correspondent who occupied the room which had been his quarters before the fal of Boemfontein. was told that often Delarey was in bed less than two hours in night. He vas always personally seeing to the carrying out of his plans.
 It was he who overruled Piet Cronje when the older man insisteh on sticking to the old style of fighting seeking the hilsides and from imprbvised stone scanzes using the purchaseiof the higher positions to throw back attackers. as had been successful done in the kaffir wars. Delarey said:
 No; they will assume that we are on the kopje. Let us go somewhere else" He had his way at Magersfontein. when he moved the Boer front line forward and to the left into the long. low bank of rough-flat, away from the big hill. and thereby trapped the Highlanders. How right he was may be judged by the fact that Lord Methuen poured lyd- dite all the previous afternoon on the hillside where 1t subsequently appeared there was nobody.
 Again. when General French struck around to the east for the relief of Kim berley. Delarey was against Cronje's plan of falling back along the Modder, and
 
 away to Boshof, taking with him the big gun that had been turned against Me thuen's camp at the Modder for the pre- vious two months. He also got away the Boer siege guns outside Kimberley and took them all up to his new base without a casualty.
 His habitually accurate reasoning led to Delarey's being frequently taken away from his western Transvaalers to devise positions for other Boer leaders.
 Since the British occupation of the rail way line and the stretching out of the block house system have made personal meetings among the Boer leaders Nnore difficult he has remained in the western Transvaal of which-eXcspting the towns-he is still practically master.
 He is humane. conpanionable man, not at all cynical. otherwise his release of Methuen might have been accompa- nied by the expression of an earnest wish that they might again meet soon in battle.
 Before the war Delarey was leader among the liberal Transvaalers and not on very cordial terms with the Pretoria government. He is an older man than Christian De Wet or Louis Botha. is deeply religious as his Huguenot forbears and has great gersonal influence among the country Boers, who in the west of the Transvaal include large proportion of men of his race.