NEWS OF THE WEEK.
'TILE war news during the week has been fairly satisfactory. There has been a certain amount of heavy fighting with Delarey, but it ended successfully for us ; and in various parts of the theatre of war a large number of Boers have lieen accounted for in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Mean- time that most favourable of all:favourable symptoms, the assistance given to us by Beers who are sick of the war or furious at the ruin spread by the looting commandos, is becoming more marked. There axe at this moment quite a considerable number of Boers fighting on our side, and most effective fighters they are, for these men are not mere mercenaries or ne'er-do-weels, but "strong farmers" who want to see the war ended. We should have had many more of these men long ago but for the feeling among them that we might after all abandon the war and leave them utterly ruined and deserted, as we treated the loyalists after Majuba. Many Dutchmen are still haunted by the notion that even at the eleventh hour we may desert our friends. The notion is absurd, but none the less. mischievous.
