116 pages, original brown cloth covered boards. The cloth is soiled and splitting at the bottom of the spine, the contents are good.
A South African Bibliography, volume 3, page 592, only three copies listed.
The telegrams are a detailed record of war news as reported to the population of the Orange Free State from the commanders at the front fighting the British forces.
At the start of the war the Orange Free State government set up an Information Commission / Information Bureau in Bloemfontein. Its job was propaganda and counter-propaganda, publishing official telegrams from the front to the public, to keep morale up and to give the Boer version of events against British press reports. This small book is a compilation of those telegrams covering the first five months of the war from October 1899 to 13 March 1900, when Lord Roberts' forces occupied Bloemfontein. General Clements's column was operating from Jagersfontein by late March 1900, when it moved on to occupy nearby Fauresmith. Thus it was printed in the short period of only weeks either in the last days of the independent Free State or in the first days of the British occupation. It is plausibly the last official publication of the sovereign Orange Free State. It contains reports of the early Boer victories at Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso, then the defeats of Paardeberg and the fall of Bloemfontein from the government's point of view.
The book is signed 'Finn Andersen , Jagersfontein, Orange River Colony, May 1900', on the front free endpaper. He is thought to have been a member of the Scandanavian Volunteer Corps founded by railway engineer Christer Uggla at the outbreak of the war. The Corps consisted of 114 men, including officers, of which 46 from Sweden, 13 from Norway, 24 from Denmark, 18 from Finland. After it was largely destroyed at Magersfontein in Dec 1899, survivors and new volunteers continued to serve in other Boer commandos.
'The telegram dated Bloemfontein, 12th December reads, ‘General Cronje, at Modder River wires: A severe fight took place yesterday from 3 45 a.m. to 3 p.m. The artillery fire slackened after this, but increased again at 6 o'clock. The Burghers kept all their positions, and repulsed the enemy violently on several occasions. A correct return cannot be given yet of our killed and wounded, but as far as is known 18 were killed and 43 wounded. The Scandinavians suffered the most, about 40 of their number being either killed or wounded. Fifty prisoners were taken during the day. I estimate that at least 2,000 English were placed "hors de combat." Among the killed are J. Coetzee, Fieldcornet of Lichtenburg, and Fieldcornet Diedricks, of Ladybrand.'
- Size: 8vo (180 x 120 mm)
