The evening times., 1899-10-26
The English Reverses.

While the War Office in London treats
the retreat of General Yu!e from Dundee as
q brilliant strategic movement. the plain
truth is that il represents British re-
verse not the less serious because ii was
inevitable under the circumstances. We
may say indeed, that the whole plan of
the Natal frontier defence. considering The
disparity OF force between defenders and
invaders. has been doomed to failure. more
or less complete. Any West Point boy in
his first year could tell us that il would
be hopeless for a little command of twelve
or fourteen thousand men to hold line
fcrty miles long and keep communication
open between its eNtremities. against an
enemy able 10 attack il in vastly superior
force AZ ell points simultaneously. That
the right Of Sir George Whites little army
WAS ESt annihiIiated at Dundee is due en-
tireiy TO the accidents Of war. If Grouchy
he'd appeared when he should
have ca the dag OF Watedloo the
is1ue Of thar battle might have
been different Il Erasmus had en-
gagged Sir William Penn Symons' fank anI
NiljoCn his rear. when Meyer opened the
1GhI at daybreak last Friday from Smith's
Hin, as they were expected TO. the expe-
rience OF the second Dundee encounter ana
Of the affair at Elandslaagte strongly sup
ports The opinion that the four thousand
British \troops would have been crushed
by TIE three movements, each of which
would have represented a force nearly
equal to the strength Of the garrison IN
men and guns.
Fortunately for the gallant Britons the
plan of battle on the part of the Beers
was batter than its execution. and the re-
suit, while adding fresh Ius1re TO Anglo
Saxon arms. staggered the enemy sulfi-
cienuy 10 permit of the mastery retreat
effected by General Yule, who is now safely
in touch with the main British force at
Ladysmith But the balance sheet far the
week, while il is filed with items of glory
written in blood, shows an unmistakable
Boer credit in the footing JoubeTt has
cleared out the Neck of Natal and military
experts in England assume that he must
be close on the heels of the retiring COL
umn. II so. Sir George Whites ability 10
strike another offensive blow is grayely
open TO doubt. If the advance of the
TTansVaal forces from the direction of
Glencoe Junction were delayed even for a
day or two, it was on the cards to strike
the Free State commanders in front OF
Ladysmith, and in the event of success
which would be fairly certain, change front
and attack Joubert to the north. On the
other hand, if the latter has effected a
.s..,,
Pass, we do not see how the British gen.
eral can hope to do more than hold out
against siege until the arrival of re-
endorsements
Should that be the event, the Roer in
yasion of Natal would appear successful.
Whites communication with Pietermar-
itZburg would be at the mercy of the
enemy, and the country between open to
raid and devastation. Cut off from his
base, and from the possibility of supplies.
the position of the British commander
would be a desperate one, and the only
question would be, whether or not he could
hold out against failure of ammunition
and starvation until relief should reach
him.
While, with the force at his disposal 1t
would seem that the idea of stopping the
invasion from the Transvaal and the Or
ange Free State on the Observation-Disclosures
line was practically hopeless undertak-
ing. it is not easy TO see how the attempt
could have been avoided. If not checked
on the Natal frontier from Laing's Mex
to Tintwa Pass, the invaders at once
could have spread over the province, and
probably could not have been met under
conditions as favorable to the defenders
as at Dundee, bad as those are seen to
have been.