The Rhondda Leader

WE are glad to find that Remember the country generally has the responded most liberally to Warriors. the appeals made on behalf of the brave men who are to-day fighting well and worthy of the great traditions of the British soldiers for pluck and "game." One 'Í!:nd 3,11 show, that they illddai ri -W Lloyd frou.' ad with tu £ .v ill do | habvhood. ie acknowledge^ N4LPlTave every continence Li,at,E air'Welshi'nen at the front will ^and like bec-h^yn dewr in the thickest of the fray. As a leader, Colonel Baden-Powell has set the XnU fOT Wf>ta'fo0r0a"r Britishers. But we at home must do era duty. We cannot flgllt • ir, s hoi ,1 smooth the afflictions of the »i«. «« land Wirns." They give tl.e.r must five oar money. There are three main ? ° LP rp'ieved —(1) The widows and orphans of thMe' killed in war, (2) Sick and proportions. On the assumption that 3.0W men are killed, it is calculated be 800 widows, and the money sent 11 ^eady to the Mansion House alone provides a/- a week for life for this number. THE State provides partial What the and total disablement relief State does- for the sick and wounded soldiers, but no one recog- nises this as sufficient. Even in this class private liberality has ample scope for supp e- niental aid. To provide for the t nrd class wives and children of men serving m the war constitutes the most difficult p^ble^. The soldier's wife with one child gets 111H T,er week from the State the reservist s wife "th o"e child only 8/9 per week. Tins very hird upon the reservists, for it mnst be reiiienibere(I when at home and at work many of them hold very good posts, and therefore the drop to 8/9 is a severe pecuniary sacrifice to the family of a man who rs grvrng mud, more than his service to the c -use of his r. J..1.n. "a'on. t country. The great danger 01 k'—- n x. nf rrcnorosity is tlie danger of ovei- 0 and giving disproportion- 2 y t"o claimants ,vl,o ought to he treated on Unns of equality. All our local d.o«W be guided by knowledge from a centia bureau and thus avoid the possibility ofany neglected. The cold weather will be a reminder to stimulate practical patriotism and to bestow deeds of generous Sn in every possible way. y, helacth THE monthly Trade and Navigation Trade Ketnftis continue to show a remark- Lively. »ble »»'! gra-«fyi"S improvement. During the past eleven months we have exported goods to the value of S,<«SOO. » ""T 1,'X than thirty millions as compared th„ months of last year. Of this ZZL the comparison of the two Novembers t' .L 1 .L' accounts for £ 4,751,000 The, injpa «. oi u,e eleven months are valued at i444!d.,),0W, which gives an increase of nineteen mi lions 0ne of the most satisfactory items m the list rf exports, include,! for the accounts of the present yeftr, is that of ship. over the monthly aveia noteworthy than the increase of this year over its predecessor. WE recently read in a Bir- I WE recently read in a bir- Over- mingham paper the report of J- in inquest in which the jury, CTrains in returning a verdict of acci- Tra dental death, added, that had proper aeeommodation been provided by the railway company the accident would not have happened, and they considered that it was negligent on the part of the railway company to over-crowd trains as they did. We write this with one sole object of helping the authorities of our own local railways to make ample and safe accommodation for the Christmas Holidays. It is to be hoped that Rhondda people will be detrained at Ponty- pridd with the minimum of inconvenience. It is chafing for the Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach passengers on holiday seasons to be the last customers accommodated at Pontypridd. "Off with Merthyr and Cardiff trains, and then you can take your time with the Rhondda," is almost a proverb with those who have to travel. It so frequently happens this way that it is not unnatural such an impression of the official treatment of the Rhondda trains is abroad. We hope that in the forth-coming holidays every organization will be sanctioned, by which the thousands of Rhondda. holiday-makers will have through trains from Cardiff; and let there be no mis take about knowing the Rhondda from other trains at Pontypridd. There are boards on the coaches we know, but there is an absence of prominence about them. The folks that will be going in their thousands during Christ- mas and Bank Holidays are not your usual travellers who are well able to know their way about. We well remember how the traffic was dealt with at the time of the National Eisteddfod at Pontypridd. THE Rhondda folks were nut Once well kept long waiting on the plat- Treated. form. They were not treated to that irritating shunting of the whole train with a certain turn-about performance above the signal box, but were taken away at once. Why cannot the Rhon- dda have such an arrangement every holiday season ? We are quite confident that the chief of the traffic department, Mr. Harland, does not lack the expert ability, and, indeed, the wish to do all within his power to make travelling on the Taff a thing of beauty and joy for ever." A great deal has been done. Twenty years ago a through train to the Rhondda only existed in dreams, but to-day we admit that we have a good number of them. Still, the Rhondda must and should not be satisfied with railway service of the "small branches kind." It is something more than the auxiliary; it is the main support and pillar of the company taken away, the Taft. Railway finances would soon know it. Therefore, we hope that in the holiday arrangements the 130,000 Rhonddaites will be duly considered. HITHERTO we have not ex- Gatacre's pressed an opinion upon the Reverse, present war. We venture to say now that we never heart- ily co-incided with the negotiations which plunged us into it. But since war has been declared, and since its fortune is a matter of great British prestige in South Africa, we have orO-- _e•_<.<}, U/, or tiieaio, everything oeing -1,- planned, ju»t an it had been during Yr *r>p''r! »-M cHflSPid the sin of i: -XT 'iJmi»'tliaE it will m.gi.MiiuiW of an Empire °v4l, claims that Christian ethics are t„e A. .Jrt £ e oftne Kritwl. army by the mistake vuiclUia. lost us a» prisoners over 600 men. ,s difficult and irritable to explain. Misled by guide." is the real key-note of the whole history which has led to the war. The dis a'Tecteil condition of South Africa, the and silent preparations made by the Boei o-nrl Generally, the hoodwinking of those who 1 presented our country in the colony, na^ been a ease of Misled by Guides' for some time Then with our characteristic bounce, we have nursed the belief that all would end speedily when our great armies were landed. Short-lived hope I Just as we have gathered ourselves together, and doubtless after,a" nenditureof words more sanguineus than Twirliamentary, we learn from the latest tele- grams that Lord Methuen has had a reverse of an equally severe character. BUT plainly we have a good What an deal to learn even now about Old Warrior our enemy. Last week a savs. great old warrior, who de- y scribed himself as a veteran of the old school of the muzzle loader and the smooth bore, said although he did not despi theory yet he did not think it was everything tZl The Boers had no theories they fought in their natural way, and they fong welI The kind of news that comes to us from day to day proves enough to show our Generals have yet something to learn of natural fighting from the Boers, who ™ tv.pir country and suit their tactics to it. ,1 ,1'1 '.Ó soldiers are still the bravest ot wie. • The unflinching courage and dash of attacks under murderous fires make everyone adiiiire titelli. The nietlio(li of the Boers are nite the reverse, they shoot from behind they ;ef traps for the bloody CtIbUf Hghtf l"t rTthe ,.bj;ct of war L mlny of your enemy out of .on t the smallest loss to your own side ? From this prosaic view we are ooliged to say that the Boers have proved themselves ooth practical and scientific. READING the Police Saturday Nighi: News for the Rowdies. there is one species of rowdyism which w re«iet to find on the in<,eaSe. The la^am ^Saturday is the noisiest and most disa ie,. !we tra n of the Meek. Pontypridd platform a p""ect Bedlam of erics and t;ho»ts_ o shoni Hoi, l)ai Hoi," and so on. The ticUt X-tors at the various p L, tilost tryiiig tiiiie ofit. IJl1st S Ig.t. 1_I hpinl, (Iriink and assaulting the cnai^i u portli f'T Cn stni mischief bent, he is humour about Colemanand Bowen, aml his two companions L.Jomana ,mlst the tickets IB NO y alsoleanl the lesson ,,i,- they are clie iaw. Ihe y che(}ked in their lawless that, unles. y Rhondda will be nonsense, this joild^f the 1 "easily forgive him he is decent, ana wo though we {,)r getting -^nt^do m But when think him a big fool for dow0 so. he adds hooliganism to his drunkenness, then we say the authorities are doing quite right in making him pay up handsomely for his self-entertainment. We are now on the eve of Christmas festivities, and, naturally, these growing tendencies among some of the boys to make noisy fools of themselves is not a pleasant anticipation. The police, as far as our observations serve us, on these nights act with patient discretion, and many times their attempts to dissuade an unreasonable Shoni to get out of the way quietly and without bluster is very commendable. THE boy Bowen was fined an Tumbled by additional ten shillings for Tumblers. stealing two tumblers from Po n t y pridd refreshment rooms. We hope Bowen sees by this time that two tumblers at five shillings each is rather expensive sport even for he present good times. It is said that Shoni stole these tumblers. It may be stealing technically, but it was not stealing in Shoni's heart. It was what he calls a "lark," tipyn o spree wyt ti'n gwel'd?" Shoni with his double fortes on the road and the station platforms is not a thief he is the other fellow commonly called an ass. We do wish to see him reforming be- cause, at heart, he is a very good sort, and al- ways ready to do a kindness when appealed to. Assaulting police and such like foolhardy nonsense cannot be tolerated, and therefore the only way to keep some of these foolish boys straight is to fine them heavily, and thereby deprive them of the means, for a time at least, to repeat these idiotic freaks,

Ilondda Colliery Manager Captured by the Boers. (Continued from last week). STRANGE SMOKING CONCERT. Proceeding with the narrative of his capture by the Boers and his ultimate es- cape, Mr Harris says: At night, a smoking concert was held in the hotel, when singing was indulged in by all the white men in the place, including the Boers. In the room there were not less than twelve different nationalities, but the occupants were chiefly Boers, Holland- ers, and Germans. Pinnear made the re- mark, 'Well this is a funny world we live in. Here we are fighting the Englishmen, and here we are sitting with the English- men enjoying a sing-song, and we are just about to listen to the song "Noses." BOERS SING OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM. The Boers and others joined joined in the choruses, and you will be surprised to hear that they said to the Englishmen, 'Now let's have your National Anthem,' and 'God Save the Queen' was sung by the company. On the following moning ,whilst at breakfast, a patrol came round and ar- rested all the mine officials, including my- self and Mr Mitchell Innes. They took us to the hotel, which had been made their headquarters. We went under a court- martial under Commandants Koch and De upt some "Field-Cornets. is-'ee with nun and louna <uvr -j Meilieon anu tirm A T ^POTTRT OOLUBOT OFFICIALS GOTO martSfef WWMeTwL?betarco.idncted Ju-f fKloaraXlnheSStfy°enioyd Court held to gvo us ^re1°not ™di the^other ,nanc^he wTs enjoying SWORN NOT ^IMPART INFORM A il. AV.„ + We were requested to take an oavu f we would not interfere in any way nor im- part any information about them whilst in their hands as prisoners, and we were told that they would not be responsible for what would happen if we attempted to run away or anything against them. I thanked the interpreter on behalf of the white pri- soners and promised that I would do no- thing and say nothing against them while in their hands. I then asked Commandant Koeli whether he would allow me to take the rice for our coolies, which was at th station in a truck, so that I could feed the i- „f „ri„,m there are oUU, ana sS'on the ertsS He askei me how m^ bi there were, and I informed hrm 200. &. T7' PRISONER RICE SOME OF HIS OWN RICili. He told me he would not be able to let J have1tiTwhole of the rice, as he might require some for his own mevu He then gave me a permit to take l°0bg Kafirs with the oxen, and after they Cntf «erSddo anuJtle workon to I -^ratsiL?»r The Boers were marvellously polit verY much mine officials all {should better than I .ha<names of Judge Koch specially mention th dying, and the who, I understand, is now •yn6>r-ii eldest son of Commandant De Meilleon. BOERS EXPECT TO LOSE. He said to me that he anticipated that J±e sa iose in the war, but thev all thought that they were fighting W rilt and justice, and that they would wUlinllv lay down their lives for their country^ right, and liberty, as they felt certain it was a capitalistic move.. He m- formed me that they were expecting the Britich troops to coiTie and attack as tne British patrols had been seen six miles from Ladysmith. I heard the bugle sound and saw all the Dutchmen take up a strong position in the kopje to the south of the Station. As I anticipated an attack from the British forces, we all got out of the line of fire,but no fighting began that day. Dur- ing the day the Boers discovered. our maga. rrinn nut, nf which they took 2o0 to <300 ;0uAds of dynamite, also 3.0TO jojb^« ammunition belonging to our Rifl tion, Martini-Metford Mark 4. Jhey als ransacked our offices freaking op« thrj safes, out of which I h^ u/e all possession of all any loot. Colonel Roytson to correspondency the Eiandslaagte Rifle Association, so that this night was rather frestless one for me, for fear of being made a close prisoner. BOERS GET DRUNK. That evening a large number of Boers managed to secure liquor and. get drunk, so that I advised all the men to get out o their way for fear of being insulted and nerhaps knocked about; but nothing hap- pened? One of the Field-Cornets asked me whether I would, allow my blacksmith to shoe some of their horses. I replied that I had no objection, but I knew at the same time that they could not find the man, as E feUow expected he would be required for this purpose and had made himseu scarce. I noticed that all their horses j were completely done up, and they were simply getting the mto move by brute force At night the rain came down in torrents, and the Boers must have had a very un- comfortable time of it, considering they had no tents or other shelter. The next morning I went to see if I could see any British troops, and to my surprise I saw about 800 or 1,000 of them looking down from a kopje on to Elandslaagte. I called Mr Innes, and accompanied by other white men we walked round towards the troops. AN ARTILLERY DUEL. An artillery duel began between the Natal Field Artillery and the Staats Ar- tillerie under Colonel Schiel. We got in amongst the British troops who had to re- tire because of the Dutch artillery being heavier than that of the volunteers. It appears to me that the shells of the Boers were of very inferior quality, as, although they lit and struck about among the troops there were no casualties. The fire of the Boers was excellent, and they must have known the range to a nicety. The troops retired in good order for a short distance and the Boers were following on the heights to the left of us all the while keeping up a continuous fire, but as soon as the real artillery came up the Boers stopped, and firing seemed to cease for a while. MR HARRIS ESCAPES. The troops were continually arriving from Ladysmith, but I then left for that town on foot to telegraph to my wife that I was safe and had been released. I was accompanied by Mr Mitchell Innes, and we were met outside Ladysmith by Archdeacon Barker, who had come to meet us with a carriage. All the other prisoners got away as well, but the most amusing part of that was that the Natal Government Railway officials who were in closer confinement than we were and had armed guards placed over them, brought their guards with them to Ladysmith as prisoners." A cablegram was received on Wednesday intimating that Mrs Harris was now on her way home.

Pontypridd Guardians. Mr Godfrey L. Clark, J.P., presided over Wednesday's meeting of the Guardians, and before the commencement of the proceed- ings referred to the death of their late clerk, and proposed a vote of condolence with the family of the late Mr opickett. Mr W. Spickett briefly thanked the Board. It was decided to advertise the appoint- ment of clerk, at the same salary as before, viz., L265, the appointment to be made at the next meeting. Mr Richard Morris asked if the new clerk would have to devote the whole of his time to the work or not. The Chairman: There's nothing said about it. I think myself it would be better if we had someone to devote the whole of his time to the work, but I am afraid it is impossible. It was also decided to advertise the appointment of vaccina- tion officer. Rev. W. Rees said he wanted to make clear that in religious instruction at the Union, no denomination whatever, should be permitted to teach its own distinct prin- ciples while conducting services in the Union. He could give an instance where denominational instruction had been im- parted in the Workhouse. Mr Richard Morris objp^ entirety to 'i\¥r^c?ees^ sfTecsch. The Guardians had no- thing whatever, to do with religious in struction in the Workhouse, or elsewhere. Mr Rees explained that he did not object to private instruction, but to denomina- tional principles being taught in relig services. 'Ultimately Mr Rees motion was agreed to.

Theatre Royal, TONYPANDY. On Sunday Evening, members of the "Geisha" Company held a Grand Sacred Conceit at the New theatre Royal, Tony nandv There was a good attendance, and a splendidly compiled programme of sacred music was provided. Opening with an authem by the Choir, O Lord, how manifold (Barn by). This was followed by a song l ie Promise of Life" (Cowen), Miss Dolly Har I I court; song, The Sailor's Grave Mr Gordon Williams; violin solo by Mr. George Nieholis; song, "There is a green iiiii" (Gouiiod), Mr. Key Cooper; evening hymn, O, Gladsome Light, the Choir song '^Nazareth," Mr. George Stone; «ong, Angus Macdonald" (Roeckel), Mi« anthem, "To the Great Lord, the Choii sonx, "He wipes the tear from every eye (Lee), Miss Peggy Yeoman song, Home^of my heart" (Leom), Mr. Tudor Williams, Sweet and low, the Choir; It is enough, Mr. G. Stone. The National Anthem sung by the Choir, with Miss Dolly Harcourt as soloist, concluded a most excellent concert. Mr. S. Duckworth has provided a big at- traction this week, viz. Mr. Arthur! arrens Bright Lights" Concert Party. The entei- tainrndftt is most amusing, and the fun Jjnd hilarity is sustained throughout with conside able spirit, the ludicrous situations working hearty and with continued merriment. All those who desire a succession of good hearty laughs, and a thoroughly merry evening, should seo Mr. Arthur larren in his lady impersonation, together with Master C. L°yer> whose singing, acting and dancing, is a featur really funny and clever. Their impersonation of the great comedy cou Little 1 om Doddy 1_l.1.. and the Gaiety Belle," m tnen S absurdity, "Lackeys and Lovers elicited roars of laughter. The Ventriloquial enter tainment by Mr. Walter Roselle is seldom surpassed. The Great Butterfly Dance by La Belle Mars was a marvellous performance. The programme is unique, and chang nightly. 'The performance each evening i interspersed with a Pictorial Lecture, 1 Wide World Over," consisting of a series of superb paintings, exhibited with mechanic and limelight effects, by Mr. J. W. A Sacred Concert is announced by lVir. Farren, to take place on Sunday, at 8 p.iii-i in which there will be illustrated Recitals and Scenes in the Holy Land. Admission by silver collection at the doors.

Reservists' Fund. Local subscriptions already received by the Mid-Rhondda Committee of this fun are as follows:—Per Mrs J. Thomas. Llwynypia, and Mrs Hammond, Uydacn Vale, £ 27 2s. 9d.; per Mrs J. W. 5ic^d ? and Mrs J. Cox, Llwynypia, £ 26 9s. lidv> i per Mrs W. Lawrence, and Mrs J. VI. Jones, Tonypandy, £ 31 14s. Sd. per Mrs Dr. E. N. Davies, Penygraig, £ U 17s.» per Mr Griffiths, Post Office, Clydach Vale, £ 5 5s.; making a total of £ 102 8s. Details will appear next week.

Rhondda Baptist Ministerial Union. The monthly meeting was held on Tuesd^ afternoon at Libanus, Treherbert, under t presidency of the Rev. H. Harries, ministe that place, when a very excellent paper > read by the popular preacher the Rev t,. I fryn Jones, Llwynypia, on the Authority the Scriptures." It was unanimously decia to secure the publication of the same. In N evening the Rev. T. Davies, Pentre, deliver a most impressive sermon. '.J