The Hawaiian gazette., 1899-12-26
THE BRLIlsH pEFtAr.

The news of the defeat OF three brig
AIDES of General Sir Redvers Buffers
Army Corps, intended for the relief
of Ladysmith and the capture OF Pre-
toria, comes as Il most unacceptable
holiday present to the British people
and their Anglo Saxon friends. So far
as we have the accounts of this dir
aster we can only infer that the British
commander erred, as so many British
Generals have done before him, In
going out to fight guerrilla enemy
with an Army managed by the rules of
European warfare. The British never
seem to realize that there are times
when all the red tape, all the schooling
and all the clustered theory must be
thrown to the winds and fighting be
done by the sort of individual initia-
tive that appears in the American
skrmish line. The American soldier
learned his skirmish formation from
dear experience and it Is high time
the British soldier began to learn it
also.
General Buffers catastrophe re-
minds one first of Braddock's celebra-
ted defeat in the Pennsylvania forests
Braddock had Indians to fight and he
proposed to do it by advancing in
platoons and firing volleys as they did
at Fontenoy. Colonel George Washing
ton and other colonial aides told Brad
dock better but he would not listen To
advice Suddenly, as he was march
ing on the enemy he found himself
hemmed and ringed with fire and
stricken with arrows. There was no
enemy in sight but death hurtled
everywhere. Volley firing did no good
and the artillery found no mark. After
vain expenditure of herolsm Brad
dock retreated, the only portion of his
force escaping with honor being the
colonial
AT Bunker Hill the British made a
similar mistake and would have been
beaten finally as they were in several
charges, had not the powder and ball
of the Americans given out. Again in
the war of 1912 the British attacked
Jackson's forces at New Orleans in
compact masses Jackson had rifle
men who were accustomed to Kill
squirrels on the jump by sending their
pea-sized rifle balls through the little
animals heads. The british General
Packenham, brother-in-law Of the
Duke of Wellington and commander of
an army of Peninsular veterans, de-
spised the uncouth bordemen and
hurled his columns against them with
a blind confidence that cost him 2400
men in half an hour. He was up
against" the Beers of his time but he
disdained, with true British fidelity 20
precedent, to maneuver or to throw
out skirmish lines or TO give his indl-
Nllual SUuI pSuoOltio ~ 'iiahNe'
In previous Boer wars this absurd
insistenee on form and rule cost Great
Britain more than one disaster. Ma
juba Hill was an ayoidabie calamity,
yet 1t taught no lesson. Only the Other
day General White ran into an am
buscade and lost two regiments and a
battery. Even that taught nothing for
we find Gatacre doing the same
thing and Sir Redyers Butler
marching three brigades lin squadron
and right form of war" Into another
Boer trap losing eleven guns and no
one knows how many men
The truth is-and we have empha-
sized II before-that the machine made
army is no match for expert guerrilla
riflemen defending their own soil, The
guerrilla thus equipped and inspired, Is
the most formidable soldier In the
world. The only way 10 equal him Is
to adopt his tactics-to put men in the
field who can shoot as well and are ms
cunning as he. We very much doubt
whether the Tommy Atkins of Alder
shot fills the bill. Australians. who
shoot rabbits on tho jump, and Cana
dams, who bring down partrldges on
the run; native troopers from North
ern India and white men from the