The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-03-22
: THE BoER HERO.
Traits Of Delarey Who Captured Lord
Methuen.

len antagonist back to Klerksdorp to
be attended to as soon as he found
that Gen. Methuen was fit to be
; moved. The possession in his hands of
a live British general was not calcu-
/. lated to disturb the clear Judgment of
! this remarkable descendant of the old
French Huguenots and lead him into
personal reprisals, says the New York
| Sun.
A record of the strategy and tactics
. of J. H. Delarey, the prosperous land
owner and leader of the burghers of
Lichtenburg for many years of peace,
would probably furnish the most val
I liable matter for scientific students of
warfare that is to be found on either
/ side in the South African struggle.
But apart from a military genius that
! recalls the personality of some of his
ancestral compatriots in the first
French republic, there is another side
to Dearey as man.
When the Beers struck their first
blow in the western campaign by cap
turing the British armored train on
the Mafeking line and occupying Vry-
burg, the BOer operations We're direct
ed by Delarey. When Vryburg, which
lies out in the fiat, wholly unsheltered
and was an easy capture, found itself
without Il constituted government, the
neutrals began to help themselves
freely to the household furniture of
the British residents, who had hurried
south into Cape Colony.
Delarey himself moved south with
his Lichtenburg commando, collecting
burghers as he went, and held the
railway south of Kimberley. But as
soon us he learned that proceedings
which were not in accord with his
sense of the art of war had followed
the Boer occupation, he ordered every
stick Of property in Vryburg to be re-
turned to it's rightful owner, and at
once set up a municipal system which
was found working in perfect order
eight months afterward, when the
overwhelming numbers and wide
spread disposition Of Lord Roberts
columns moving north necessitated a
Boer movement back into the middle
Transvaal.
The bank manager at Vryburg told
the present writer after the British re-
occupation that Delarey's system had
worked like a perfect model, and it
does not appear that there is single
outstanding private claim of any kind
arising out Of his extemporized gov
eminent.
j The last to leave Vryburg when the
Beers came in were the half dozen
officials of the Bechuanaland Survey
Department Delarey conveyed them
down with their families, handing
them over from commandment to COM
mandant, until they were set free to
take the train below Orange River.
When they were seen ut Cape Town
none had any words but those of per-
sonal regard to say of him.
j. III. Delarey-pronounce his name
De La Rey-is 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 man Of extraordi-
nary mentality, but he looks it, nat
ural mathematician and a man of ac-
ton. A quiet manner, combined with
extraordinary bright eyes, gives Il
man.
A correspondent who occupied the
room which had been his quarters
before the fall Of Bloemfontein, was
told that often Delarey was in bed
less than two hours in night. lie
was always personally seeing to the
carrying out of his plans.
1t was he who Overruled Pet Cronje
when the older man insisted on stick
ing to the old style Of fighting, seek
ing the hillsides and from improvised
stone sclanzes using the purchase of
the higher positions to throw back at
Hackers, as had been successfully done
in the Kaffir wars. Delarey said:
mo; they will assume that we are
on the kOpje. Let us go somewhere
else"
He had his way mt 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 Nc
thuen poured lyddite all the previous
afternoon ON the hillside, where it
subsequently appeared there was no.
body.
Again, when Gen. French struck
round to the east for the relief of
Kimberley, Delarey was against Cron-
je's plan of falling back along the
Modder. and the Lichtenburs man got
his commando away north to Boshof,
taking with him the big gun that had
been turned against MTethuen's camp
at the Modder for the previous two
months. He also got away the Boer
| siege guns outside Kimberley and
} took them all up to his new base with
OFF n IN S,laItv