To balance Nitral's Nek Lord Roberts was able to state
that on Wednesday Smith-Dorrien had a successful engage- ment with the enemy at Krugersdorp and inflicted heavy loss on them, and Buller also reports driving off the Boers who were attempting to destroy his railway line. General Hart also sends intelligence that the Boers are laying down their arms in the Heidelberg district. The news from the Orange Colony is also distinctly good. Though the cordon has not yet closed round De Wet and ex-President Steyn, there is plenty of evidence that the Boers under their command are in a very bad way. For example, they recently put some seven hundred British prisoners over the border whom they could not feed, and who were in a half-starving condition. Knowing the immense value attached by the Boers to the possession of prisoners, this fact is most significant. Equally striking as evidence of the straits to which the Orange Colony Boers are reduced is the fact that several members of Mr. Steyn's late Government have come in and surrendered. It is stated also that De Wet has sworn an oath never to surrender, or other- wise he would have given himself up, for he realises that the Boer cause is hopeless.
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