Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1901 — THE BOER WAR. [ARTICLE]

THE BOER WAR.

Has Degenerated from Earlier Stages of the Campaign. The war in South Africa between Briton and Boer still draws its weary length along, with widespread ruin and death its accompaniments.. The “parade to Pretoria” has proven a costly venture, and though the Transvaal capital was long ago entered by the British, the struggle shows little sign of ending. The guerilla tactics employed by the burghers, the matchless ability of Gen. De Wet and the grim resolve of the inhabitants to fight to the death for their independence have prolonged the struggle beyond all preconceived ideas. And with the prolongation has come deterioration in the spirit of warfare. The British have applied the reconeentrado policy of Weyler, of infamous Cuban memory, but in milder and more humane form. Nevertheless the face of the land has suffered. Buildings ,have been burned, crops destroyed, and recently the telegraphic wires carried the announcement of Gen. Kitchener’s intention of firing the grass of the veldt so the Boers might be deprived of the means of grazing their horses and cattle. The Boers’ tactics consist chiefly in swooping down upon isolated British posts, wrecking supply trains, whence the burghers add to their stock of arms, ammunition and clothing, and in looting stores kept by pro-British sympathizers. The stand-up-and-fight features of the earlier portion of the war are wanting.