The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-23
BULLER's CHRISTMAS DINNER

And General Butler will not eat his
Christmas dinner in Pretoria after all.
| Before leaving for South Africa this
English Weyler, blood thirsty butcher
that he is and always has been, made
! affirmation, in a very boisterous man
ner, that he would eat his Christmas
dinner in Pretoria.
But Buffers prophecies, like all other
prophecies from English sources. have
Ilamentabiy failed of fulfllment. In
stead of eating his Christmas dinner in
] Pretoria he will be fortunate indeed if
he is not a prisoner there, land in that
case the dinner which he would eat in
the race course would be quite different
from the one which he fondly hoped to
eat in the Dutch capital as master of
the Dutch republic.
The braggadocia which has charac-
terized Englishmen when speaking of
the British-Boer war is quite in keeping
with the English character. Butler, af-
ter Informing his friends of his inten-
tons for Christmas day, calmly added
that he would be back in England for
Derby day. From present indications
he will be more than fortunate if he
ever sets foot on English soil again
OF all the prophecies made concerning
this war, it is worthy of note that those
which have come from Boer sources are
finding literal fulfillment.
President Kruger said that the war
would stagger humanity, and his words
indeed are being fulfilled every day.
On Oct. % last General Joubert, com
nandaht of the Boer forces, writing to
friend in Berlin, spoke as follows:
Ever since the infamous Jameson
raid Of '96 our government was con-
WINGED that some disreputable charac-
tiers would urge England to war. It's
meaning could not be mistaken. 1t
could have for its sole object only the
humiliation of the Boer republics We
were equally sure that we would have
to depend on our own resources. for, al
though we knew that this war would
meet with the unanimous condemnation
of all European powers, we did not an
ticipate that any of them would sum-
mon strength to come to our rescue
England's arrogance and her strong
navy have so cowed the European pow
ers that they dare not bid her stop in
her despicable land grabbing, not even
where their own interests are involved.
Knowing these circumstances, we de-
pended solely upon ourselves, improved
our means of defense and tried to keep
the English in the dark as to our real
preparations. To this purpose we gave
their disguised spies access to our an
tiquated guns and artillery, but were
very careful to conceal from them our
modern artillery parks. Our calcula-
tions proved correct. The English pub
lie credited these misleading reports.
Their cry, To Pretoria is on a level
with the Partisan cry of 1870, "A Ber-
lin!
Your letter lays much stress on the
numerical superiority of the English.
but in my opinion the example is a diff
ferent one England cannot send more
than $4,000 soldiers to the TransvaaI
without Withdrawing all her troops
from the colonies. This in itself is an
imposing army, but only half of them
viii be available. Granting that Eng
land Will have effected the landing of
her troops by the middle of December.
she viii have lost in the meantime at
least 10000 through deaths, casualties,
assertions and captures. Their number
would accordingly be reduced to $4,000.
We will try to prevent the junction of
the English forces under Butler. but
even If we should not succeed the Eng
fish will be unable to put more than
$4,000 men in the field against us. The
rest will be needed for garrisons and
protection of their bases of operations.
THE scene of the war will cover Ma
tai and Cape Colony. an area of, say,
700 kilometres. Our own camp is pro-
tected by three mountain ranges, and
500 men are amply sufficient for its pro-
lection. Our manner of communication
is excellent. The outposts have COM
mand of and facilities for destroying
provisions in case their position be-
comes untenable. If the war should be
carried into our own country, of which
there are no prospects at present. our
advantages would become greater vet.
For while facing unknown conditions in
Natal and in the south. we are quite
able to make use of the splendid on
portunities of defense which our own
country offers.
THE enemy will meet a very stub