The Topeka state journal., 1899-10-13
FIELD OF IMPENDING WAR.


From the Boston Transcript
South Africa is a region OF magnih-
cent distances, though it is only the
narrowing tip of the Dark Continent.
1t is a saying, by this time become old,
that steam has annihilated space. For
the purposes of commerce the saying
may be true. but inasmuch as com
InanderS have to watch railroads nucn
as they guarded old time thorough
fares, the saying has its limitations in
war. If general can use railroads, their
opponents can break them up by raids,
so that as a whole the possession of the
iron ways, if it reduces the travelling
time of armies, by no means annihilateS
space. Such advantages as the possess
sion of railroad lines give are clearly
with the British in South Africa, for
while the invaders can not enter the
/ Transvaal directly from trains, they
can be carried by rail close up to its
border. When the last Boer war was
fought the British South African rail-
road system was in it's childhood, if not
infantry.
Today the traveller can go from Cape
Town to Salisbury. a distance Of LILO
miles, without changing cars. This line
runs through British territory for it's
entire length and skirts the western
borders of the TranSVaal, thus making
an attack and entailing corresponding g
Watchfulness on the BOer side. It's ter
minus is far north of the Transvaal, in
Matabe1eland, in a region which was
wilderness when last Boer and Briton
clashed but is now developing so fast
as to be capable of taking a share in
the British invasion.
The railroads leading directly to Pre-
tOria of course run for a. considerable
portion of their length in BOer terri
tory, but one at least, that from Dur
ban nOrthWesterly touches Laings
Mex before it leaves Natal. From
Durham to the Boer border is 800 miles,
Pretoria being 200 miles farther on The
British concentration thus far appears
to have been made along this line, with
Durham an excellent port on the Indian
ocean, base. To invade the Trans
Yaal from Mafeking, a British strong
hold in Bechuanaland, near the point
of departure of Jameson's raid, calls
for the use of a long line of rail from
Cape Town, Mafeking being $40 miles
from the latter port.
The chief commercial line for Trans
vaal trade is the railroad from Delagoa
Bay. This line is $50 miles long and
starts in Portuguese territory which
fact accounts for the statement in de-
spatches that one of the centers of in
terest in the Transvaal is Lisbon. If
England can by hook or crook get
Portugal to let her hold Delagoa Bay,
she is in possession of the shortest line
of operations against the TransvaaI.
There is still another route open to
England, running in British territory,
the railroad which, starting from Biera
on the Indian ocean, 500 miles north of
Delagoa Bay, parallels the northern
boundary of the IranSVaal. The Orange
Free State having cast its lot with the
rail route via BIoemfontein is available
to England for only a portion of its
1O4O miles The British. it will be
seen, can use four railroad routes for
at least a portion of their length to
reach the Transvaal border.
If the employment of these lines means
division of British forces, it also means
the division of the Beers, and the latter
are the less able to take the risks of df-
vision. The population of the TransvaaI
Is roughly reckOned at about 1,100. 900, but
of these only about 900 are whites. OF
the whites, too, considerable proportion
are Outlanders, who hate the Beers The
natives are also secretly hostile to the
Beers, the latter'S methods being those
of the taSkmaSter to the children of the
soil. The Orange Free State is but a
p1gmy ally, for it can not have more than
100000 white inhabitants. reckoning the
English settlers in the total 1t has no
towns Of any considerable size, its capi-
tai, BloeTnfOntein, having but about 1000
Inhabitants, of whom about one-half are
BLACKS" who will have to be watched.
To the natives in the Transvaal and the
Free State, as to the Outlanders, a Brit
ish army would come as deIiVerers for
British rule is gentler and juster than
test between BritOn and Boer there can
be scarcely a doubt. The modern Goliath
is proof against sling stones and carries
q magazine rifle sighted to kill at 1000