Diamond City.  To the refugee the pay was convenient, the work bracing and congenial, and the prospect of “potting a Boer” not at all bad.  With the Light Horse were soon to be associated some hundreds of the Cape Police (who came in from Fourteen Streams); and the combined forces inflicted considerable damage, and were a perennial source of irritation to the enemy all through.  De Beers came out strong in another direction by heading the list of subscriptions to a Refugee fund which had been opened.  The amount subscribed ran up to four figures.  Much distress prevailed, and the Refugee committee set about distributing the fund to the best advantage.  The ladies came out strong here, and gave yeomen service—­scooping out flour, meal, tea, and sugar to the needy, and in sifting and rejecting, with rare acumen, the bogus claims of the “Heaps” who affected humble poverty.

The Summary Commission sat for the first time, and with a courageous disregard for the despotism of red tape, proceeded to business.  The first case called was that of one, Pretorious, whose open and vehement condemnation of the war, and the policy that led to it, had rendered him an object of suspicion.  A search of his house had resulted in the discovery of a revolver and two rifles, with ammunition to suit all three.  The Proclamation had been very clear as to the seriousness; of this offence, and the penalty it entailed.  The Court pronounced the accused guilty, and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment.  The cases of minor offenders were postponed, and some of the prisoners awaiting trial were released on bail.  The fate of Pretorious was paraded by mischief-makers as something which had produced a salutary effect in the Dutch element at large.  It induced them to cultivate a remarkable reticence; but reticence is not essentially a product of good government.

On Wednesday, the Boers—­in so far as their demeanour could be gauged from a distance—­betrayed a tendency to wax indignant with us and our determination to fight.  Large numbers of them perambulated to and fro, keeping nicely out of rifle range.  A section of the Town Guard went out to the Intermediate Pumping Station, and sought to entice them into battle; but they were not to be drawn.  The Beaconsfield Town Guard was afterwards deputed to try its powers of persuasion—­to no purpose.  The armoured train was finally resorted to as a decoy; but beyond eyeing it from a distance—­and if looks could smash, it would have been reduced to small pieces—­the Boers made no attempt to catch it.  So far from being lured or wheedled by us, they rather conveyed by their wariness that green had no place in their eyes.