The times., 1899-11-07

made up his mind to il. A simple rear
admiral cannot stand against the Presi-
dent But can Mr.. Mckinley crush Dewey?
Is Crowninshield the advance agent Of
that sort OF political prosperity?
British War Office Failures.
Whatever else may be thought in England
concerning the war in South Africa. there
appears TO be n unanimity Of sentiment in
regard 10 the shortcomings of the War Of
fee. a storm Of Indignation is rising, and
the Marquis Of LansdoWne, Secretary of
State for War, is apparently about TO be
exposed 10 it without an umbrella. 1t
seems as inconceiyabIe in London as it
does here, that in spite of repeated warn
ings and in defiance of reiterated and
urgent advice from army headquarters,
this minister should have utterly ignored
the necessities OF the situation, and left
little division of British troops to face
practically certain destruction. when he
might easily have re-enforced them by ten
OF fifteen thousand men, any time since
July.
The useless waste Of life on the frontier
OF Natal seems chargeable to Lord Lans-
downe, just as the sacrifice OF General
Gordon st Khartoum was the fault Of Mr.
Gladstone. But the mischief is net all OF
War Office making The staff is coming in
for a large snare of both professional and
lay criticism Of a very violent nature. For
example, the intelligence department of the
army appears to have shown as much
ability as the Eaganized Commissary Once
in our service did during the Spanish war.
With every means and facility for acuuir-
ing accurate information. it is believed TO
have wholly misjudged the Boer ability to
raise, organize, arm, and mobilize an ef-
fective army. The authorities are amazed
ar the fatal discrepancies between intel
ligence" reports and predictions and the
accomplished facts to the contrary.
Perhaps the worst and least excusabIe
blunder Of which the British military de-
tective service is guilty is that of being
caught without any useful knowledge of
the Transvaal artillery armament Even
in this country, where We have had bitter
experience in staff inefficiency-we do not
include our ordnance or our intelligence
bureau in this reiection-it is difficult to
understand how such thing could happen.
For years the Pretoria Government has
been openly buying guns in Europe. They
/ could only reach the Transvaal via Lou
renco Marques, Durham. Cape Town, or
. Port Elizabeth. At all Of these places, 1t is
! needless 10 say, the arrival and trans-ship-
ment Of artillery could have been closely
watched. Yet, now that the war has been
4 in progress for four weeks, the British
. Government, for the first time, realizes
+ that the Beers have three times the field
guns the intelligence department had any
idea OF, and actually an outfit OF ten
twelTe-centimetre siege guns, about which
i it was in absolute ignorance until they be-
( gan to make their appearance on the
/ heights commanding Ladysmith.
/ Now, things like this are simply murder
+ Gus. Il is said in London that if the ord
! nance Office had known Of such an equip
ment in the hands Of the enemy. the posi-
( ton at Ladysmith could easily have been
supplied with a corresponding one. The
fate Of the place and Of its devoted garri-
son may be determined by this egregious
bit Of official incompetence, In America
we have been in the habit OF looking upon
British army organization as something
suDerlative, and upon Her Majesty's stafi
as nearly perfect. 1t is to be feared that
there is some occasion 10 revise this opin-
ion Tor the present il would seem that
the legend intelligence" ought to be
painted out on the door of the Office Of that
designation.