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Show DAVTTT TELLS ABOUT THE TRANSVAAL WAR-. Michael Davitt, who has returned to Dublin, was interviewed on his arrival in regard to his experiences in South Africa by a representative of the Dublin Dub-lin Freeman's Journal. "I cannot promise to give you an account ac-count of my experience in the Transvaal Trans-vaal and Orange Free State." said Mr. Davitt, "as the story would be too long for your purpose, but there are a few points which can be touched upon in our conversation that mav have some Interest for Freeman readers. 'How-long 'How-long is the Boer resistance to Lord Roberts' army going to continue?' is one of these questions.. I cannot pretend pre-tend to speak with any special knowledge knowl-edge on this point. I can only offer an opinion, founded on what was to be heard and seen before I left Pretoria, in the -middle of May. It had been decided, de-cided, some weeks previous to this date, not to defend Pretoria, or make any determined stand at Johannesburg. This decision must have been a welcome wel-come surprise to Roberts. It was an astounding piece of news to many of the Boer officers, who were confident that the Transvaal capital would have I been defended at all -.costs. I was told I that President Kruger had, after long j and anxious deliberation, resolved not to sanction a conflict which would have involved the probable loss of 20,000 I lives. It was also said that he shrank j from contemplating the enormous loss I of property which would necessarily ! follow the bombardment of Johannes-! Johannes-! burg and Pretoria, property owned bjr Boers as well as by British; though to a far larger extent by the latter than ! the former. This resolution not to carry car-ry out the original plan of campaign with reference to a British attack on I these cities brought the war within measurable distance of its termination. It was expected by many In Pretoria j that as Lord Salisbury had declared, in the hearing of the whole world, that England did not want any extension of j territory in this war, and was not in J pursuit of gold fields in seeking to pro- tcct British subjects from alleged in-i in-i justice, that the British, on being al lowed to enter Johannesburg and Pre-1 Pre-1 toria with little or no resistance, would have declaied themselves satisfied with this manifestation of conquest and stopped the war, insisting nly on uch j terms and conditions as were demand-i demand-i ed from the Trans', aal nrevlmis to thp outbreak of hostilities last October. This was a very d-lusive expectation. Joubert died in the firm belief that England would go- no further than this in the war. Many of President Kru- ger's friends held the same view. They did not know England rightly, and on finding that nothing but abject submission submis-sion would satisfy their enemy, continued con-tinued resistance was forced upon the Boers as the only honorable alternative to a cowardly surrender." R. But, Mr. Davitt, ; had not the Boers in large bodies already refused to defend the north of the Orange Free State against the. advance of Roberts from Bloemfontein to the Vaal River? Mr. Davitt Yes; that was another unexpected development of Boer tactics, tac-tics, and it may havu had. as you suggest, sug-gest, something to. do with the abandonment aban-donment of the plan for the defense of Pretoria. But the real explanation of this and other inconsistent actions of the federal forces is to be found mainly main-ly in the Boer military system. ,j This system has been greatly lauded by European military critics, wrho saw it only in the light of.' the astounding defeats of large British forces by small bodies of burghers. They did not judge of it from an intimats- knowledge of its ; whole working. It-Vas a system which originated in the necessities of warfare with savage foes, and was never intended in-tended for a conflict with civilized enemies en-emies wielding disciplined forces. A j burgher can fight or not, just as he J pleases. He is virtually his own officer, offi-cer, and can leave the field of action when he likes. I have been assured that thousands of Boers looked on in commandoes in active engagements during the war without firing a single shot. Others would fight or 'not,' just as the impulse of the occasion would determine. Then there was much Jealousy Jeal-ousy between large numbers of Free State burghers and Transvaalers, with bickerings arising out of Cronje's surrender. sur-render. R. Then Botha is still at the head of this force of 15,000 men? Mr, Davitt not now in command of so many. I would say he has about 10.000 at his disposal, while Christian De Wet will probably have 3,000 or 5,-000 5,-000 men. Botha has close on twenty guns, and plenty of ammunition, and if he resolves upon falling back with this force, or even with half of It as far as Lydenburg, he can hold out in the fastnesses of that miniature Transvaal's Trans-vaal's Switzerland for six months, at least, in defiance of all Roberts' men and resources. ' 1 R. You referred to the Iris brigade, Mr. Davitt. There has been much interest in-terest taken in the doings of this regiment regi-ment by a great section of the Irish people. Have you anything to say on this topic? Mr. Davitt Very little, indeed, that has not already been nublished. I met Blake and McBride in Pretoria on a few occasions, but did not meet the men of the brigade, as they were ordered or-dered to Brandfort when I had intended intend-ed revisiting their camp in Natal. They were some 250 strong1 only. It is claimed claim-ed that it was they who determined the fate of the British at Modderspruit at a critical point in the fight.- Blake is a good fighter and a resourceful officer in action. He was popular with all classes in . Pretoria. Major McBride however, was the real organizer of the brigade, and Is one of the most recklessly reck-lessly daring fighters on the Boer side. He is a very modest young fellow in conversation, but I have heard several Boer officers speak in the highest terms of his pluck in the fighting round La-dysmith, La-dysmith, at Modderspruit. and .t Co-lenso. Co-lenso. There is a second Irish brigade, under Colonel Arthur Lynch, an Irish-Australian, Irish-Australian, who contested Galway city in 1S92. He had about ISO men in his command when I visited Dundee, but three-fourths of this "Irish" body were composed of European nationalities, French. Dutch, German and Italians. He is very popular with his mixed command, com-mand, ns he has hown himself to be a most efficient officer. , |