The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-29
UNPREPARED, BUT PREPARING
FOR THE WORST.

1t is the contention In England that
the Colonial Office plunged into war
with the Beers without due knowledge
o fthe real strength Of the Beers. Sir
William Butler was recalled because ne
reported that the British force was far
too weak for the work assigned. Gen
eral Joubert in October showed how
well he understood the situation, how
wisely and thoroughly the Beers pre-
pared for the worst, and how prophet
ically he foretold what would befa1 the
British. He completely befogged and
deceived them, and then thrashed them
again and again when they blfndly
and rashly rushed into the trap set for
them with so much of skill and judg-
ment. He wrote:
W. often allowed secret English
agents to penetrate into our arsenals,
where there was merely old artillery
material, but We carefully concealed
our modern material, of which they
thus knew nothing until the very eve
of the war. We were not mistaken in
counting on the contemptuous esti-
mates formed by the English spies as
to our military force"
Chamberlain acted like a crank and
without judgment or justice forced the
war. The New York Evening Post, re-
ferring to his reception in Ireland, says
forcefully:
There is a grim propriety in Mr..
Chamberlain's being in Dublin just
now, guarded by cavalry from the boot
ings of the people. 1t was his opposi-
ton to Irish home rule which alone
made it possible for him to be taken to
the bosoms of the aristocracy, whom
he had been threatening a little before
with talk about their having to pay a
ransom to the Door: and at the very
moment when his diplomacy and its
consequent disaster are shaking the
conservative government, he goes to
ireland to get the reward of a doctors
degree from Trinity college!"
It is well now if the war is to con-
tinue hat Roberts and Kitchener are
sent Onward to the theatre of war.
There may be British officers who car
fight we'll under others, but there is
none in South Africa who has shown
himself capable of Independent COM
mand. The ordering of 179 900 men to
| Africa to fight less than one-third of
that humble of Beers, may be a neces-
sity as it is to send all the greater sol
diers. The movement may be STRAIT
getical, to prepare for other troubles
than those to be encountered in Africa.
Great Britain has SO provoked the
world by it's craze for grabbing land
and subduing weak peoples, it has
aroused much opposition and caused
great nations to antagoniZe it. Hence
it may be that other complications
may follow, and if so the British in
Africa will be nearer the scene of &C
ton perhaps than if remaining at home.
That is at any rate the view of the
Evening Post which says:
1T is a kind of notification to the
world that the British empire is ready
for all ev~entualities. Like the appoint
ment of Admiral Beresford to COM
mand in the Mediterranean, it implies
that imperial policy is watchful over
all imperial interests. If troubles come
in India or beyond the frontier; if the
French stir up Menelik to march from
Abyssinia against the British in the
Sudan; if at any point in her wide do
main Britain should see danger aris-
ing, she will not be found u~nprepared.
The Cape may, if necessary, resume it's
old place as the halfway house to In
dia and the Orient. The entire British
army in South Africa would be nearer
where it woul probably be required
for the defence of the empire than it
would be in AlderShot.'