Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1900 — WAR NEWS IN BRIEF. [ARTICLE]

WAR NEWS IN BRIEF.

Maj. Gen. Vrettyman lias been appointed military governor of Bloemfontein. Mr. Wessels, president of the Rand, has gone to England to solicit public sympathy. / Gen. Kitchener is credited with the hulk of the work, but Gen. Roberts gels the bouquets. Twelve thousand shells were thrown into Ladysmith, killing thirty-five of the garrison and wounding 188. It is estimated that Gen*. Buller and Gen. White lost 0,182 men during the operations around Ladysmith. By the time Lord Roberts reaches the Vaal river he will command some 80,000 men, while Gen. Buller will have 40,000. The Dutch rebellion in Northeast Cnpe Colony seems to be collapsing. Kitchener has been pouring British troops into the district. The British war office has issued a report showing that the total number of casualties in South Africa has been 14,911, exclusive of 955 men who were either accidentally killed or died from disease. The total estimated expenditure On the British fleet for the twelve months from April 1, 1900, to March 31, 1901, is plac-. ed at $137,613,000. . Montagu White confirms the rumors that the Boers will utterly destroy Johannesburg if forced to do so. Pretoria could not be defended, he says, if Johannesburg were permitted to remain. Cecil Rhodes says there have been only 30,000 Boers in the field altogether, and that the foreign mercenaries were only about 15,000. The numbers of the Boers, he said, had been exaggerated in order to explain the British reverses.