The evening times., 1900-04-03
The Disaster Mt Daorn Spruit.

The full extent of the disaster to Colonel
Broadwood's column at Doom Spruit can
not be known at present, as our des-
patches show indubitable signs of whole
sale censoring. and the same is true. of
course, of cable reports in general 1t
is yet matter of doubt as to how many
OF the two crack cavalry commands in
volyed in. the affairs were killed or cap
tuTed. As there is every evidence Of official
concealment the reasonable inference is
that the worst has not been told.
Two points are pushed to the front in
the official and other messages from
Bloemfontein. One is that the Beers were
more than ten TO one Of the British. The
other is that The trap laid for Broadwood
was the most cunningly devised thing OF
the kind in the history of warfare Both
assertions may be true, but need not nee
essarily be so accepted in advance CT later
returns. We seem to remember that art
er the unfortunate Woodgate went to his
death on Spion Kop. his brigade of TWEEN
ty-fve hundred mea was driven from the
position by such an overwhelming force
CT their enemy thar resistance was quite
useless. But il has recently transpired
that the Boar attacking column, which
was led in person by Gen Louis Botha.
only numbered four hundred rifles.
The suggestion that the snare at the Spruit
was work of genius, is perhaps necessary
10 cover the embarrassing fact that Rim
ingtons scouts, hitherto regarded as
command exclusively made up of sherlock
Hclmeses. went ali through and around and
across the ground, and did not see hide or
hair Of any Beers although they were
within three hundred yards of the trail.
i'm considerable force, quietly hiding and
biding their time behind a stone wall The
scouting may have been brilliantly thor
ough If so, ii is a little strange that it
did not include the enclosure in which
there were enough of the foe to salivate a
CONVOY of a hundred wagons and two resi-
mcnts Of cavalry. and to carry OFF seven
British guns. 1t may be patriotic vanity,
but We do not believe that any such scout
ing would be apt to happen in the case OF
an American field command similarly cir
cumstauced. Indeed, il may be observed
with some confidence that any cowboy. or
frontier service veteran in WheeleTs di-
vision before Santiago. would have smoked
the trap at DocTn Spruit without any doubt
whatever.
The broad chances are that a heavy bat
tie is in progress in the neighborhood of
Bloemfontcin. as the Beers appear TO have
assumed the offensive on the theory that
Lord Roberts is not yet in condition to be-
gin extensive operations. They have not
waited for him at the Modder or the Naal,
but have shown a disposition to force the
fighting. BY tomorrow We may hear some
details concerning events in progress. Va
rious things are possible. 1t may be that
Botha is making demonstration in force
against BloemfOntein in order to create
diversion in support of Oliviers move
ment from the Basutoland border, the OBJ
iect Of which. of course. is TO effect june
tion with the Boer main body. AS Roberts
must have nearly or quite one hundred
thousand men. il does not seem likely that
Botha could indulge any hope of being able
to succeed against him in general en-
gagement. for the Beers cannot have to
exceed thirty or thirty-ive thousand
troops of all arms available for the pur-
pose. even including the five or six thou
sand supposed to be with Olivier. The only
thing which appears to be completely evil
dent is that Lord Roberts is not liable to
reach Pretoria without some very serious
fighting or without heavy losses.