The war news continues to be meagre, apart from the
usual ' lists of surrenders and captures of livestock, but the total Boer casualties 'fOr-Ainil reach the total of 105 killek118 Wounded, prisoners and surrenders 2,193. It is stated, however, on good evidence, that the scattered commandos in the Cape and Orange River Colonies have received orders to concentrate, and concentration, if it takes place, must expedite the progress of the war. It is significant also that General Botha has boon reduced to the device of spreading ludicrous fictions about the British in order to encourage his followers. De Wet's whereabouts still remain obscure, and his prolonged inactivity lends weight to the stories that he Las forfeited the confidence of his countrymen. In the Northern Transvaal the " hustling " policy, by which the British columns are kept moving in every direction so as to allow the enemy no rest, is still energetically maintained. We may note that in Wednesday's Times General Smith-Dorrien, while taking on himself full responsibility for the operations at Dullstroom last November, pays a. generous tribute to Lord Kitchener. "There appears," he writes, "to have been a sort of idea in England that Lord Kitchener on aisuming comrn mond would stop at nothing short of murder ; whereas, while prosecuting the war with firmness and rigour, he uses every conciliatory and humane means of bringing it to a close."
