Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1901 — BIG LOSS FOR BRITAIN [ARTICLE]

BIG LOSS FOR BRITAIN

The Boers Slay Many jn Transvaal Battle. ONLY FIFTY-TWO ESCAPED. The Men Killed, Wounded and Captured Belonged to General Beaston’s Column of Victorian Mounted Rifle*—Two Officer* Among the Slain. All England is stirred again by the news of a disastrous defeat of British arms in south Africa. Lord Kitchener cables that only fifty men out of 250 Victorian mounted rifles escaped in an attack by Boers. The British public is growing impatient at the apparent lethargy in the operations in south Africa. Nearly all the reports of the small battles that have occurred during the past two months show that the Boers each time were the aggressors, according to London reports, and the British suffered more or less severely. Lord Kitchener’s dispatch is dated at Pretoria, and says: “Near Welmansrust, twenty miles south of Middleburg, 250 Victorian mounted rifles from Gen. Beaston’s column were surprised in camp at Steenkoolspruit by a superior force of Boers at 7:30 p. m., June 12. The enemy crept up to within short range and poured a deadly fire into the camp, killing two officers and sixteen men and wounding four officers and thirty-eight men. of whom twenty-eight were slightly wounded. Only two officers and fifty men escaped to Gen. Beaston’s camp. The remainder were taken prisoners, their arms taken from them and released. Two pompons were captured by the enemy. Full details have not yet been received.” The serious reverse which Lord Kitcheper reports is the first accident of the kind that bas happened to the Australian contingent, and it is supposed to be due to neglect of proper picketing. More or less fanciful accounts are published on the continent of alleged peace negotiations, but there is nothing in them, and nothing has come of the interview between Mrs. Botha and Mr. Kruger beyond revealing the fact that Mr. Kruger will i’sten to no proposals unless they are accompanied with a guaranty of the independence of the republics.