The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-20
CAN THE B0ERS WINp
An Interesting and Timely Srscu-
lation.-
Ieslie's WeekIyl

(l-eSile w eekly.J
1t is too much to assume, as many are
doing, that in a conflict at arms be-
tween the Britons and the Beers, sucr
as that now in progress. ultimate VIC
\ tory for the Briton is a foregone con-
clusion. There are possibilities and
some yet Understandable factors in tbs
situation which make such a conclu-
sion of the struggle less of a certainty
than might be supposed from a super
fetal glance at the opposing forces.
| 1t is well to remember. in the first
place, that the Boer and the Briton
have met in deadly ARRAY on several
previous occasions, with the result of
an overwhelming and disastrous defeat
for the second party. In the battles of
Laing's Mex, Ingogo. Majuba hill, and
in the Jameson raid, the Beers were
victorious, although the British out
numbered them in nearly every in
stance. In fact, previous TO the present
war the British had never won a vic
tory over the Beers except at Bloom
phats, in 1913, when the latter had
nothing better than fiint-locks, while
their foes were equipped with heavy
artillery. In the conflict at Majuba
hill, in 1880. the Beers won against
greater odds, it is said, than have been
won by any volunteer army in modern
times. Their charge up the hill in the
face of an overwhelming foe has never
been surpassed in war history. Their
total force on this occasion was only
$50 men. while the British had 600 and
We're strongly intrenched. Men capable
of such magnificent deeds-and the
same Beers are in the fighting line to-
day-may bring about results that will
astonish the world. The crushing de-
feat of the British at Ladysmith may
be only a forerunner of like disasters to
the invading army.
Fighting, as they are, in their home
land, the Beers have some natural adj
vantageS in their favor to count against
experienced British generalship, mill
tary science and weight of numbers.
South Africa is d country practically
without harbors or navigable rivers.
Its coast line on both sides is almost
unbroken. Between the Atlantic coast
and the highlands of the interior
stretches a dreary waste of sand-dunes
and treeless, waterless plains. while the
east coast is Swampy and malarious TO
an alarming degree. The Transvaal
republic itself is completely landlocked-
Under these conditions the British Will
have great difficulty in transporting
their forces to the seat of war and
massing them against the enemy. while
their boosted and invincible navy will
have no call for action at all unless
some of the coast countries should be-
come involved in the struggle
Another element in favor of the
burghers of the Transvaal lies in the
fact that they will doubtless be as
sisted in their struggle by one or more
of the neighboring South African
states, and. at all events, by a large
number of people in the region adj
jacent who are allied with them by ties
of blood and language. The Orange
Free State has already decided TO cast
its weight into the scale of war on the
side of the Beers, and has sent to their
aid an army of 10000 men as valiant in
fight as their Transvaal kinsmen.
Natal, another neighbor, can muster in
an emergency an army of at least 5000
men of Boer extraction who would be
happy at the chance of putting in a
blow at an enemy. But larger and
more formidable than all of these other
outside forces together would be the
element in Cape Colony. to
whom President Kruger has made
passionate appeal for help.
high military authority gives the
entire British army, including reserves.
available for service in South Africa at
SO, 900 men, to which few thousand
irregulars gathered from other parts of
the empire may afterward be added.
Upon the basis of these figures the
chances of war for the burghers do not
appear so bad. after all. despite the
1ear-b bought victories of the British at
Glencoe and Elandslaagte-
Another still larger. and possibly de-
termining factor in the situation may
be found in the native African or black
population of the region of disturbance.
It is asserted that these people will
adhere to the British cause, but that is
oy no means a certainty.