22 MARCH 1902, Page 3

The Standard correspondent, telegraphing on Monday from Pretoria, has sent

a long and graphic account of the disaster to Lord Methuen's column at Tweebosch. From this it appears that the Boers attacked in force just after dawn, galloping straight for the rearguard in five lines, in open order. The gunners and infantry behaved with admirable coolness, and of the mounted troops the Cape Mounted Police and 5th Imperial Yeomanry showed splendid courage. But the remainder of the mounted men forming the rearguard stam- peded, exposing the guns of the 38th Battery, which were rushed by the Boers, every man being shot down, including Lieutenant Nesham, who refused to surrender. Meantime on the right flank the enemy had got within six hundred yards, and Lord Methuen, after securing cover for his convoys in a kraal, galloped back to the guns on the right, and was shot dcwn as he rode from point to point encouraging his men. Finally, after five hours' hard fighting, the gunners of the 4th Battery were all killed or wounded, including Lieutenant Vanning, the officer in command; and the kraal being un- tenable in face of a heavy shell-fire, the British surrendered. The Standard correspondent speaks in the highest terms of the courtesy and humanity of General Delarey, who not only allowed Lord Methuen to retain his private waggon and papers, but overrode the opposition of a mass meeting and insisted that Lord Methuen should be given free passage into Klerkedorp-