19th. Went out to try and shoot plover, which form an acceptable addition to our rations, as we have now come down to horse-flesh and six ounces of bread per day. Fairly quiet day. Strolling down to town in the evening, I assumed that their snipers were too much occupied with our people in the brickfields to bother about me. They were not, however, and were unpleasantly attentive.
20th. Re-transferred my residence to the town, the firing is heavier down here through the day, and also, indeed, the night, but here we are under cover.
21st. Gun did not fire more than two or three shots, but at night there was very heavy firing along the brickfield front, they shot some of the working party, and also headed some of the natives going towards Kanya. The Boers made a half-hearted sort of attempt to turn our men out of the advanced trench, but utterly failed. The question of feeding the natives has been solved by the establishment of a soup kitchen, the component parts of the stock may be varied, but the result is eminently nutritious.
Gun changed back near to old position east of town, they elevated and depressed her several times, but did not fire. As the bells rung, however, the moral effect was exactly the same, possibly also the physical. Sergeant-Major Looney, A.S.C., was reduced to the ranks and five years penal servitude awarded to him for selling Government stores. Private Miller, Protectorate Regiment, tampering with a loaded ninety-four-pound shell, was blown to pieces. This form of lunacy is apparently ineradicable. We anticipate an attack to-morrow, as it is the Orange Free State Independence Day. I wonder if the Free State still exists: the following letter apropos of this from the leader of the opposition in the Free State before the war is, I think, interesting:--
(Copy.)
BLOMFONTEIN,
September 4th, 1899.
CHARLES METTAM, ESQ.,
Box 23.
Krugersdorp.
DEAR MR. METTAM,
Your letter of the 30th inst. is to hand, and affords a by no means solitary instance of the one sided and high-handed treatment former Free State Burghers have to undergo at the hands of our so-called brethren in the South African Republic, yet in spite of all this the political union or alliance was put through our Raad, and should hostilities break out, we shall have to be belligerants and be involved in all the horrors of war and have to lose our independence, and for what? As a just reward for the folly of allowing a spurious sentiment to override common sense. So it is, however--and under the circumstances, as you have lost your Free State burgher rights you could not claim protection here. The only way I see for you--as you hold to your birthright staters--is to bring your position to the notice of the British resident, and ask him to advise you how you are to act. With kindest regards to Mrs. Mettam and yourself.
Yours faithfully,
J. G. FRASER.