The age-herald., 1900-04-16
COURAGE MAKES
 THEM CARELESS English Officers Seem to Merely
 Play at War. INDIVIDUAL INCOMPETENCE Saturday Review Says That the Brit ish People Congratulated Them selves Too Early on Posses
 sion of Bloemfontein
INDIVIDUAL lNCOMPET FENCE
(copyright. 1900. by the U. SD

turn that has recently reached the cam paign against the Boers is resulting in as- tonishing and sweeping criticisms by the English papers of their own army methods when Butler struck snags in Natal, when General Methuen and General Gatacre made terrible mistakes and before the Brit ish army had made any progress a some what similar wave swept over the press. But when it was directed at individuals and chiefly consigned to papers who were willing to condescend to slang" one or several generals. Now names are not men, toned but there Is widespread, deeply rooted conviction that the method of se- lection of British army officers is alto- gether wrong. About this conviction there is no bitterness, nor is it based upon con- clusions rapidly arrived at. Our officers" says the conservative, commonsense Out
 look, "are as brave as lions, but, as a rule are stupid"
 '"rhe warmest champions of our regi-
 mental officers" says the Saturday Re- view, ''are beginning sorrowfuly to admit
 that their courage makes them careless of
 and when not negligent they some times
 show themselves ignorant of their busi- ness.'
 Vanity Fair, which formerly denounced vigorously any such forms of criticism, admits, sorrowfully, that "our officers seem to play at war rather than to carry on war" Referring to a much commented on letter, written by Colonel Lonsdale Hale to the Times on this subject, in which Colonel Hale declares that constant mental strain and incessant carefulness becomes unbearable, Vanity Fair says: What of the strain that a naval officer has to bear when he knows his ship may be torpeoed at any moment? American naval officers have borne that strain well. Can English soldiers bear less?'
 The paper concludes by advocating army officers be treated with the same discip- line and training as our naval officers.
 The Outlook urges that navy methods be applied to the army, which it is declared is little better than a social club
 But beneath this outcry against individ-
 ual incompetence and lack of brains on | the part of the army officers, which since
 the war began has been constantly caus- | ing the loss of attachments and positions.
 and especially during the last fortnight
 there is an underlying and sometimes ex-
 pressed determination that England's I whose claims for commission rests almost solely on claims to birth or money As the Saturday Review says:
 Too soon did We congratulate ourselves
 on the possession of Bloemfontein, and too
 httie did we realize that the possession of such capital does not imply much" It then proceeds to instance the capture
 of Philadelphia by the British in the war
 for independence, showing it's uselessness and eventual evacuation.
 Not little interest is beginning to be taken in England in politics in the United States. Admiral Dewey's candidacy is re- garded rather more humorously than in
 any other light, the popularity of the ad-
 mral having been not quite understood in
 England nor his achievements thoroughly appreciated by the naval or lay circles,
 whose attention has always been more
 confined to our naval operations in the
 West Indies than in Manila.
 The Spectator, whoch so often voices government opinion, has a lengthy and im- portant editorial on the relations in the immediate future between America and Great Britain, during which 1t says in part:
 "The British people will have to keep their tempers for the next few months when they consider American affairs. By rather an odd series of circumstances it happens that the pivot of the next election | will be the relation of the United States | and Great Britain and, of course, in the 1 frenzy of the campaign very hard things | will be the relations of the United States | will perhaps pass resolutions in the demo- cratic convention calling upon the governs
 ment to intervene strongly in behalf of
 President Kruger, who either by instinct or craftiness, always appeals to them | through literature which they know best | the Testament. We shall receive a shower l of hard words from their side, and maybe
 even difficult and perplexed argument to
 maintain through Lord Pauncefote. | And, too, we shall not be very strenu- | ously defended by the republicans. Presi-
 dent Mckinley will persist in his policy | and carry his party at home, but still he | is the American candidate for the presi- | dency. and cannot bear, with the second | term at stake, to lose vote. MT McKin- ley. therefore, and the republican leaders | will do nothing to show themselves friends l of Great Britain They will utter no plain | protest against the chorus of ignorant rep
 rotation, and will view with dismay any appearances on this side of any hearty wish for republican success We must however, possess our souls in patience and give American censure that dogged stolidi- | ty with which we receive censure from the remainder of the world. The electoral cam
 paign will come to an end, and with it | most of the attacks upon Great Britain. The better opinion in the United States
 including, we believe, a majority of the
 population-is upon the whole on friendly
 terms. and fully convinced that all the
 world over British and American interests
 are the same. Of one thing we may be
 sure-the Americans will not caricature the
 queen. In the fercest of their electoral
 battles they always respect the aged lady
 who forty years ago was on their side in
 the civil war, and who is now the only
 monarch in Europe who watches their
 prosperity with ungrudging pleasure and
 without the idea that their growth, wealth