The record-union., 1899-10-08
BRITISH WAR
PREPARATIONS.
The Military Movements of a Vastly
More Extended Scope
Than One Would Be Led to Believe by the
Reports Given to the Public.

or troops TO SOutn AIrlca-A he
Recent Breakdown of Two
Chartered Vessels Leads to Dec
larations That Some of the
Ships Are Rotten Hulks.
Copyrighted 1899, by Associated Press.)
LONDON, Oct. THE scope of Great
Britain's military preparations can
scarcely be grasped by the mere read
ing of individual items as these appear
from day to day. A fair notion Of their
immensity can be gained from the
semi official statement that for the
transport of the army corps about
seventy ships of from 1000 to 4,OOO
tons burden are required, not including
a score or more of transports already
on the way to the Cape. If these YES
sells effectively disembark within ;lVe
weeks from their date of sailing, the
program will have fulfilled the fore
casts of the most optimistic British
military experts. If all the troops are
able to take their places as component
parts of the army corps by the end Of
November they will have done, accord
ing to the best available opinion, re-
markably well. The Decentralization of
General Skaters army from its thirty
seven transports is not forgotten by
British officers. Although the vessels
to be employed in the Cape service are
larger in the average than those which
carried the Americans to Santiago de
Cuba, the admiralty, in accordance
with the existing regulations, is supply
oil fob iYcr m
charge from waters edge to waters
edge. This means a tremendous outlay
of capital Nor do the arrangements
escape criticism. Letters begin to ap-
pear in the newspapers alleging favor
itism and declaring that some of the
transports are rotten hulks." The re-
cent breakdown of two vessels with
troops on board is cited as substantial
+ ing the charge, but there does not seem
to be any serious ground for supposing
/ that the admiralty is actuated by
wrong motives.
Although the impending army corps
is a matter of pre-eminent military in
terest, the troops already on the scene
of probable action constitute no IN
significant body. The original Cape
garrison was 5000 men and this has
been increased by 4, 800 There are
+ II, 600 men at sea on the way to the
Cape and their arrival will make the
approximate total of British troops in
South Africa, prior to the arrival of the
army corps -, 500 These troops do
not include the irregular forces, the
Cape mounted rifles, the Port Elizabeth
and Grahamstown volunteers, the
Natal police, the Durham light infantry,
the Australian force and the regular
naval brigade.
The Cape squadron now includes ten
warships, all heavily manned, and the
British first class protected cruisers
Terrible and Powerful will soon arrive,
enabling the navy to land a brigade of
about 1000 men.
Against this array are opposed the
Transvaal and it's ally, the Orange Free
State, with perhaps a sprinkling of ma
tives. This is about all that can be said
regarding the Boer forces. They are
virtually non-regularS and attempts to
estimate their fighting strength are
hopeless, although various calculations
appear daily in the English newspapers
ranging from 10000 to 125,000, the lat
ter figure being obviously very ex
travagant.
The whole question was summed up
for the Associated Press by an infiuen-
tial member of the House of Commons,
who said: Before this is ended Great
Britain will have to face every Boer
man or boy-strong enough to fire
gun for the sake of his country
The part which the foreigners who
are volunteering under the Boer STAN
dard, especially Americans, will take in
the expected conflict provokes much
supposition and comment
The correspondent of the "St. James
Gazette at Pietermaritzburg says:
American civil and mechanical engi-
neers have been engaged by the Beers
to dismantle the Netherlands Railway
in the event of a Boer retrograde move
ment upon Pretoria They will GER
tainly not meet with too considerate
treatment if taken prisoners. Some
thing like dozen of these adventurous
Yankees are professional railroad
wreckers, now living in comparative
clover in Pretoria"
The Boer ranks will certainly include
a number of Irishmen and former Off
GERS of the German army.
It is said the Beers will adopt the pol
icy they adopted in 1881, when ten
sharpshooters were detailed out of each
company to pick off the British officers.
The weekly papers comment with the
greatest satisfaction on the kinship of
the empire as revealed in the colonial
offers of assistance in the Transvaal
campaign. In Difference to the wish of
the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Joseph Chamberlain, only a portion of
the contingent offered by Australia will
be accepted. The fact that Major Gil
rouard a French Canadian, has tenn
porarily resigned the Presidency of the
Egyptian Railway Board in order to
take charge of the military transport
movements in Africa for the campaign,
prompts the Outlook to remark:
''This is real imperial federation
The panic stage of the stock market
appears to have passed. The tone of
most departments is much improved.
1t is believed that an outbreak of hos
tilities would send Kaffir prices up, the
idea being that war would end in the
acquisition of the gold fields. 1t is
curious that Transvaal stocks have de-
clined much less than African Colonial
stocks. This is due to a. belief that
Great Britain will assume the Trans
vaal debt after the war is over.
The condition OF the money market
excites attention. A still higher bank
rate is regarded as not improbable