Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-28
VAST MILITARY PROBLEMS

By Richard Henry Savage. senior major L. s.
Engineer Corps, in the Spansh-American War.
copyrighted by the S. s. Mcclure Co, 1891
The opening of hostilities between Eng
land and the South African republic marks
the beginning of the last act of the drama
which has been playing in Africa for fifty
years. Beginning with the innocent explo-
ratiCns of Munga Park and the missionary
labors of David Livingston, the influence
of England has been slowly extended over
Africa by every means possible 10 modern
Utilitarianism Spoke and Grand, tracing
cut forty years ago the sources of the Nile,
Sir Samuel Baker solving the problem of
the Mama, Gordon as governor of the Sou
dan, and Lord Cromer as the uncrowned
king of Egypt, have been forging. link by
link, the new chains which rivet the inhab-
itants of unfortunate Africa to the car of
progress.
The modern policy of England is strict
ly unitarian. British diplomacy goes hand
in hand with British aggression, seeking a
market for British manufactures and COM
merce for Englands great merchant ma
rne.
mond fields of the South African republic
have whetted the appetites of British mer-
chants whose legitimate African trade has
been weakened by French, German and
Her Course in South Africa.
AS to the policy of Great Britain in
South Africa since the occupation of the
Cape of Good Hope in 1906, the varying
Kafffr wars, the struggle for Natal, and
the temporary annexation of the Orange
Free State. the whole record is one of the
extinction of Dutch interests and a cold
disregard of the business of the innocent
Boer population. The discovery of the
t,l,xN
sealed the doom of the smaller South Afri-
can states. At the outset of this bloody
war England has purchased for herself
strong place of arms in Delagoa bay from
which to reach the heart of the TransVaal
by a 250-mile line of march instead of the
600 stretching out to the Cape of Good
Hope.
No man dares to assert that the Beers
have at any time contemplated any attack
upon the legal British interests. Whatever
policy of the exclusion of the foreigners
has obtained in the Transvaal, was sure
to yield in time to the infiltratiOn of The
commercial and mining population drawn
from the various civilized nations But
such gradual relaxing of harsh rules af-
fecting foreign residents would only bene-
fit cosmopolitan not purely English class.
EngIand's Alleged object.
It is not for that that England's might
est fleet and Sir Redvers Butler with two
army corps hurl themselves upon this brave
anu ny shy pScplc III dILlS II Is 10 control
gold mines and diamond fields, to round
cut the map of Eastern Africa to connect
the Cape of Good Hope with British South
Africa, British Central Africa, and British
East Africa, and to open the way for the
great inland highway which will give Eng
land great strategic advantage and the
monopoly of the carrying of the vast re-
gions soon to be developed under the in
tluence of the telegraph, the steamboat
and the locomotive. Whatever horrors of
fni he AT inc II
sistarce of the Beers will be charged by
the English to their obstinacy and spirit
and their Dutch phlegm instead Of being
counted as the ultimate heroism of a peo-
pie born free devoting their homes to fire
and sword rather than to slavery.
Not Like Our War With Spain.
There is no analogy between the position
of the British in South Africa and that of
the people of the United States in regard
to the war with Spain. On one hand the
Beers are an inland community, agrarian
and patriarchial, avoiding all foreign COM
piication and living the life which Abraham
led among his fiocks and herds. Without a
seaport, without a standing army with no
navy, with no foreign agents to embroil it;
looking only to foreign nations for peace
full exchange of manufactured goods for
natural commodities, it is difficult to con-
ceive how the Beers and the British could
clash in anything save some mere local
matter of border police.
The war between the United States and
Spain was brought about by fifty years of
unendng persecution of American citizens
by an intolerabe and brutal disregard of
all the interests of the United States. With
Cuba, an armed Spanish stronghold. lying
at the open gates of the Gulf of Mexico
with the record of massacre spoliation and
inhumanity left by the butcher, Weyler, it
was with righteous indignation that the |
United States at last fought to prevent the
final extinction of the Cuban people. The
solemn guarantee of the United States
opens every acre in Cuba to the peaceful
occupation of a well-disposed people, re-
gardless of religion, color station. The
continued domination of Spain in the West
Indies was a menace to our unprotected
southern coast, and the rights of man de-
manded that the intolerable cruelties of
Spanish rule should give way to reign of
peace.
The moral responsibilities of England In
engaging in a fight to a finish with the
Beers are appalling. The English army is
eager to avenge the disgrace of Majuba
Hill The medal-seekers of the English
regiments hail with delight the prospect of
a victorious campaign in South Africa. The
navy enters upon it's work of guarding the
coast and conveying the transports with
professional enthusiasm. The trained abil-
fly of the British forces will be manifested
in this latest inland campaign, with all the
adjuncts of modern warfare. But there are
peculiar difficulties and obstacles to be sur
mounted. which may defer the hour of VIC
tory and make the struggle one long to be