Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-21
thing about the German equivalents.

thing about the German equivalents. I
have at least dozen of these post cards
in which the queen Is caricatured nearly as
grossly any of those in France. No
measures were taken in Germany as in
France to put stop to this sort of thing.
One of the cards shows British army of
donkeys marching past the queen and the
Prince of Wales, another the queen read
ing war news and in deep distress and
third of the queen dressed as a Red Indian
squaw and on the warpath with a toma-
hawk, another of her on her knees begging
Kruger not to punish Rhodes, who is steal
ing apples from a Boer tree, etc, ETC., a
few SO bad that they cannot be described.
And these post cards sold literally in
millions. There are shops in Berlin. Co.
logne and Vienna which are given up to
their sale alone. The cards in Vienna are
mostly of German origin and are looked
upon there more fun, though the Aus
trians largely show German feeling in the
matter. But where so much ignorance is
displayed as in Austria it is not necessary
TO discuss the thing seriously
l merely jot down here some of nv i'm
pressions. 1t Is big subject, and one to
which the British statesmen will be obliged
very soon to give serious attention.
Surprises in South Africa.
The situation in the Orange Free State
has changed with startling suddenness. The
Beers, who were said to be quite democrat
lied by Lord Roberts rapid advance, have
revived to such an extent as to be able to
infiict severe defeat on the British within
tw enty-five miles of Lord Roberts army at
Bloemfontein. There several important
conclusions to be drawn from what has
occurred. Col. Broadwood's force was the
| most mobile that the British have had
operating for any heightened time. The
march of Gen. French to Kimberley was, OF
course, rush, the column being practically
without supplies, which were pushed VI
behind it, and it did not stop to fight by the
way. Col. BrOadwood had a straight line
| on which TO retreat, and though arrange
ments had been made to meet him with
| Gen. Colville's division, he marched as
| quickly as he could. leaving Thabanchu by
night march and covering seventeen miles
| before he reached the waterworks at 4
| o'clock on Saturday morning.
| His force consisted of cavalry, mounted
I infantry. field artillery and wel-traineo
| scouts with nothing to hamper their move
| ments, and yet by dawn the enemy were or
| three sides of him, carefully leaving open q
road to the drift, where they had planted
| an ambush for him. As mobile force they
| beat him out and out. though their artillery
| is not horse artillery. They had reachec
! the drift while the British were resting
| and in the darkness they made such dis
| positions that Broadwood's scouts and lead.
| ing wagons and guns were down in the
| drift, and some of them across. before there
1 was suspicion of the truth: it was as
thorough a surprise as any yet recorded.
The next matter is that a large force OF
| inc IeOeraiS nave Deen able 10 surprise Lore
| Roberts by outflanking him and pushing ir
| near to his center. 1t is certain that haG
| he thought such movement to be at al
likely he would not have allowed Col
| Broadwood to remain out at Thabanchr
| after the withdrawal of the cavalry undel
Gen. French, nor would he have supposed
| two companies of mounted infantry suf
ficient protection for the Bloemfontein wa
4 ter works.
Demands ON the Cavalry.
Again. II the Beers can make Lord Rob
erts keep on dispatching a division east o.
west Of the line of advance to repel at
tacks this will detract greatly from tn,
force the commander-in-chief has at hi.
disposal for his advance. Especially note
worthy in this connection is the use rad,
| of the cavalry under Gen French. Thi.
| force, after leading the way to Bloemfon
tein, was almost at once dispatched east