An appeal is hereby made to the charity of the general public. All who can possibly spare any single bedsteads with mattresses and pillows complete, are earnestly requested to communicate with Colonel Stevenson, Principal Medical Officer, Maitland Street, who will arrange to receive them. Labels, with name and address of owner, should be affixed to each bedstead lent, so as to ensure its return when no longer required. G. T. PRETYMAN, Major-General, Military Governor. April 3rd. PROCLAMATION. WHEREAS: it is deemed expedient and necessary for the welfare of the Orange Free State that the Railway Service shall be resumed in the aforesaid Republic as far as circumstances permit, NOW THEREFORE, I, FREDERICK SLEIGH BARON ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C., Field Marshal and Commanding-in-Chief of the British forces in South Africa, do hereby appoint Lieutenant Colonel Edouard Percy Cranwill Girouard, D.S.O., Director of Railways, South African Field Force, Administrator of the State Railways in such portions of the Orange Free State as have been or may hereafter be occupied by British Troops. And I do hereby order that the Railway and Railway Telegraph Services shall be resumed in the portions of the aforesaid Republic already referred to, from the nineteenth day of March, 1900, under the existing Laws and Conventions of the Orange Free State, subject to such alterations as may from time to time be notified, and to the requirements of the army. Given under my hand at Bloemfontein, this Thirtieth Day of March, 1900. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! ROBERTS, Field-Marshal, Commanding-in-Chief British Forces in South Africa. * * * * * "THE RUSSIANS CAPTURE LONDON." BY H. A. GWYNNE. BLOEMFONTEIN, Thursday, received Friday. Kruger is reported to have proclaimed the annexation of the Free State to the Transvaal. It is also reported that he is circulating a proclamation that England is in dire straits, the Russians have occupied London and proclaimed it Russian territory (Reuter). It is painful to think that Lord Roberts is totally unaware that he is fighting for a country that has ceased to exist, that St. Paul's is now a Greek Chapel, that the Thames is called the Temsky River, that our beloved Queen is a prisoner at Moscow, and that Lord Salisbury is already trudging on the weary snow-bound way to the mines at Kara, in Siberia. Why do you laugh? To us it seems awful! * * * * * CAUGHT BY THE BOERS. After three weeks spent in "bluffing" the Colesberg Boers, by holding various kopjes with a half company at the bottom, I found myself one fine February morning seized with a sudden attack of "Mauseritis," and so forced to watch the rest of a disastrous rear-guard action without taking part in it.