NEWS OF THE WEEK:
THE news from the front continues to improve. Each day has its record of captures and surrenders, and it is evident that the aggressive power of the Boers is well-nigh spent. The special correspondent of the Morning Post at Pretoria, whose telegrams are always very much to the point, in a despatch published on Friday notes that during the past week-there have been no less' than five successful surprises of the enemy,—three in the Orange Colony and two in the Transvaal. " In each case a number of the enemy were killed and an average of twenty prisoners was captured.". These operations, he tells us, were greatly facilitated, by the system of blockhouse posts, " which has enabled the delivery of swift and sudden attacks without warning to the enemy." One of the most successful surprises of this character was one undertaken on his own initiative with only fourteen men, from a blockhouse near Klerksdorp, by Lieutenant Edwards, of the Welsh Regiment. For this exploit he has rightly been recommended for the Distinguished Service Order. We are now some three weeks from the day fixed by Lord Kitchener for the cessation of the war under the conditions which have proved so beneficial to the burghers,—conditions under which they risked nothing in the way of loss of property and in no way jeopardised their future position in South Africa. Unless we are greatly mistaken, we shall see during these three weeks a very rapid attrition of the Boer forces.
