The war news from South Africa is nearly all satisfactory
so far as it goes. General Plumer's rapid northward advance on Pietersburg not only took the Boers by surprise, but entirely upset the preparations for another invasion of Cape Colony. A number of engagements are also reported, in almost every one of which the Boers have lost men, supplies, and munitions of war. Eighty prisoners and a Commandant were captured by Colonel Monro near Dewetsdorp. Sir H. Rawlinson's column, acting under General Babington, " rushed " a laager near Klerksdorp at daylight, capturing two guns, the British casualties being three to the Boers' thirty-nine. Dull- stroom and Bathfont have been occupied in the North, and on General Kitchener's advance from Lyden- burg the Boers blew up their " Long Tom." In the Colony
the roving commandos operate in small bodies, avoiding all risk, Kruitzinger having declared that his intention is not to fight but to keep the country in a state of unrest. The largest body of Boers in any one place is between Bethel and Ermelo, where Schalk Burger has fixed the new seat of government. Finally, we may note that the Boer losses for March are estimated at two hundred killed and a thousand captured; and that, now that Pietersburg is occupied, Lord Kitchener's railway communications would reach from the Cape to Cairo and back again as far as Berber.
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