Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-23

eral Gatacre in the Soudan. it is of some
interest to what Mr.. Winston Churchill
has to say of MIN in that campaign in his
brilliant book on The River War" Mr..
Churchill describes the general as IA spare,
midde-sZed man of great physical strength
and energy, of marked capacity and I'M
questioned courage, but disturbed by
restless irritation, to which even the most
inordinate activity afforded little relief, and
which often left him the exhausted victim
of his own vitality He proceeds: Off
GERS and men We're compelled to sleep in
their boots and the rest of the troops was
disturbed by frequent night alarms. Regu-
lar route marching twice a week and much
field firing busily occupied the brigade.
while every conceivable formation to resist
a dervish attack assiduously practiced
The excessive enthusiasm OF the general
may have provoked some dissatisfaction
among the soldiers but it is impossible to
deny that while discipline and health were
successfully maintained, the general eff
cheney was greatly increased The gem
erals well-known name in the army is I'D
Backacher.''
\ Desperate Struggle.
There is growing feeling that the result
of the war so far has not been to add to
British reputation military power
though it has unquestionably maintained, if
it has not enhanced, the glory of the Brit
ish infantry as a fighting force. No doubt
a decisive victory in Natal, followed by the
relief of Ladysmith. or on the western
frontier. followed by the relief of Kimber-
ley, would do much to remove this feeling,
which appears to rest not much upon
any detailed military criticism on the
broad consideration that two months after
the outbreak of war British troops were
still hemmed in on British territory by the
enemy, and that they have not yet been
able along any of the main lines of
operation to repel the invasion There ale
still some sanguine people who say that the
republics will collapse suddenly
the position is reversed and British troops
are advancing Boer territory, but [ be-
lieve that the number of these sanguiue
ones is decreasing, and that many who
inclined to take a short view of the dura-
ton of the war are now convint ed that we
have a grim and a desperate struggle be-
fore US before peace is restored.
Charge Grave Mistakes.
The Morning Post has a strong leader
this morning accusing the government of
making grave mistakes thus far in the con-
duct of the war, and predicts that the dis
affected Dutchmen in Cape Colony will rise
in rebellion if stronger measures are not
taken to quickly conquer the republics The
military critic in the same paper says, with
reference to Gatacre'S defeat The most
serious results of his defeat would be the
spread of disaffection along the border and
speedy additions to the Boer forces. The
force which was holding Stormberg is re-
ported to have been 5000 strong, and 1t
would not be surprising II recent victory
were worth another 1000 or 5000 to it.
The Dutchman of the border is the widest
of beings, and there were probably large
numbers of them waiting for the results of
the first action to make up their minds
whether to join the Boer forces or not.
victory spectacularly complete will
probably prove sufficient to win them over
to the enemy, and the defensive attitude
now forced on General Gatacre will not i'm
prove the situation. Since the day when
the first announcement was made of the
governments plans in stamping out the re-
bellion in South Africa we have SteadfaStly
urged the necessity for more men. At the
time when an army corps was judged ex-
T. travagantly large for the purpose in hand
That was called 'pessimism, but it proved
to be fact. We urged month ago that
a second army corps should be sent and
that large reinforcements of cavalry and
horse artillery should be dispatched al once
Slowly and grudgingly a fifth and a sixth
division have been put in notion but the
fifth will arrive too late to render effective
help in the present crisis, and there. seems
no prospect of another cavalry division
which is more needed at present in South
Africa than double its number of infantry"
Germany's Ambitions
The peace conference is bearing fruit
chancellor, announced to the reichstag at
Berlin yesterday that It was necessary for
Germany to iouble the number of her bat
tie ships. Prince Hohenlohe's statement
was brief, but Count Won Buelow the Ger
man foreign minister, enlarged upon it at
some length. He announced that Germany
could not allow any country to pass to the
order of the day" and leave Germany out
OF account. This was evidently taken by