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BOERS MAKING DESPERATE EFFORTS TO TAKE MAFEKING 14 hours 3 minutes ago #102179
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BOERS MAKING DESPERATE EFFORTS
TO TAKE MAFEKING Garrison Almost Starving But Relief Is In Sight The Montreal Star, 14 March 1900 LONDON March 14th The condition of Mafeking is very serious according to today's despatches, but the relief force under Colonel Plumer is not to far distant and may be able to accomplish its entry through the Boer lines. This news is contained ia a despatch from Lobatsi, dated Tuesday March 6th which says: Colonel Plumer's force reached here this morning. It is believed that only a single bridge southward has been destroyed, and that otherwise the railroad is intact within five miles from Mafeking. The Daily Mail's despatch from Kimberly reporting that General Methune occupies Boshof on March 11th and that, leaving a garrison there, he returned to Kimberley on Tuesday disposes of the suggestion that General Methune was leading an expedition towards Mafeking. The relief of that town, notwithstanding the many rumors to the contrary, has not been effected, so far as is known here. Several correspondents today furnish details of the siege up to March 6th, some of the messages concluding, optimistically ”All's Well,” which obviously conveys nothing more than that the town has not yet been captured. A diary of the daily doings at Mafeking furnishes interesting reading to the British, but no operations on a large scale are recorded. One day the besiegers gain an advantage, sapping nearer the defenders, while the next day the defenders drive them out. Among the incidents of the siege it is recorded that the Boers were filling jam cans with dynamite and bombarding the town with them. Majuba day, contrary to expectations passed quietly, the Boers made no attack. The British on the previous day successfully tried a new 5-inch gun made of steel plate with thick rings of the same material. The gun is mounted on an impromptu carriage, partly of threshing machines belonging to a Transvaal Boer, who is among the besiegers. The gun throws a 15 pound spherical shell. Colonel Baden-Powell lately notified General Snyman, whom the correspondents describe as being furiously anti-English, that unless he disbanded and disarmed the natives occupying the forward Boer trenches he (Baden-Powell) would hold himself no longer responsible for restraining Chief Lanchwe. The question of food and sanitation are far graver now than the danger from missiles. A correspondent says that the white males are reduced to half a pound of meat a day, women to a quarter of a pound, and children to two ounces. It is added that vegetables are fortunately growing well, but it seems that horse flesh is the main stay, many natives are represented as preferring to starve rather than eat horse flesh. Lady Sara Wilson wires the Daily Mail from Mafeking, under date of March 6 (by native runner to Lobatsi, March 9), as follows: “On Saturday, March 3, they made a determined attack. Owing to a misunderstanding, the colonials evacuated the foremost trench. This the Boers occupied, but reserves were called upon but the trench was recaptured with a rush. We had no casualties. “The Boers continue very active and it taxes Colonel Baden-Powell and the garrison very heavily to prevent them from encroaching on our lines. Since Commandant Snyman has returned from the north the siege has been prosecuted with renewed vigour. “Dynamite explosions were heard during the last two days of February. The Boers have been blowing up sections of the northern railway, showing that they fear the approach of Colonel Plumer's column. “The new five inch gun made here has provided very satisfactory and accurate. Colonel Baden-Powell warned Commandant Snyman that unless he disbanded and disarmed the native levies filling in the Boer forward trenches by March 3, he (Baden-Powell) would no longer be responsible for restraining Chief Linchwe in the Sequani district. Commandant Snyman declines to disband them. Life Member
Past-President Calgary Military Historical Society O.M.R.S. 1591
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