The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-04-03
The Wlrssenger.
A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE AFRICAN
SITUATION.

uncertain interest. One account, Tor IN |
stance, represents that Joubert is ex- |
pected to deliver battle at Kroonstadt, |
where he will make a desperate stand.
Another statement is the Boz forces
are massing in their entrenched posi-
ton al Biggarsberg. Commandant OIL
ivier's feat of getting 5000 men and
twenty-five miles OF wagons in the hill
country in spite of Roberts, who was
thought 10 hold him IN the hollow Of
his hand" excites praise as a great
military performance on the part Of a
British military critic. The British
steadily lose men. but that is expected.
Up TO now they have not lost as many
men as the Yankees or the Confeder-
ates lost in one great battle. There was
fighting in those days. The Beers are
still formidable. and Roberts will find
it out when he advances. The British
opinion, according to a London dis
patch Of the 9th, is now being review
ed, and is more cautious and reserved
as to the future of war operations.
There is now seen and admitted that
there is great necessity for the utmost
caution and the most careful prepare
tion for the long and perilous march
upon Pretoria, the capital of the Trans
vaaI republic. The London Times of the
9th instant said of General Roberts:
He is not misled by the significance
of a very partial and illusory surren-
der of arms by those who pretend to
have had enough of war, and does not
forget that Boer commands might
easily be formed o9 his line of COM
munications out of material which, for
a moment, has disappeared from view.
The territory behind an advancing
force must be rendered absolutely Sc
cure. The statements about diSSen-
siOnS between the Free staters and
T~ransvaalers as well as about quarrelS
Kruger and Steyn, must clear
ly be read with a recollection of the
difference between domestic pickering
and a severance of interests in the
presence of outsiders"
Spencer Wilkerson, the war writer,
tells the London Morning Post that the
public must not be blinded to the real
magnitude of the ask which has yet
to be performed in South Africa He
admits lit is possible that the Beers
may be able to p~rolong the campaign
Tor several months, and the British adj
vance, though it must have a crushing
effect, can be carried on only by the
persistent eXertions of those in the field
and those at home" So the British
realize that there is a big job still on
hand. But they have or will soon have
some 240. 600 soldiers in Africa to fight
probably not more tina SC. 900 Beers.
Lord Roberts will tarry at Bloemfon-
TEN yet longer to safeguard his lines.
Count S~ternberg, an Austrian officer
who fought under the brave Cronje,
says the British soldiers are fine, but
are badly differed. He said:
The European officers in the Boer
ranks had. as a rule, done but little.
When asked if continental troops
would have fought better than the
British, ne replied:
In the first place, there is no con-
tinenta1 power which could have armed
and sent SO many troops such a great
distance from home. / am able to say
one thing-even our Austrian troops
would not have done better"
An expedition has been sent from
Kimberley to turn the Boer fan The
effort is to open the road to beleaguer-
ed and hal~f-starved Mafeking.
The reference to Cronje above brings
up lis WOluSIluI pcIIOII ldliCS, dIiu
the British hallelujahs over : the
"avenging CT Majuba." The Messenger
remarked soon after Cronje's surren-
der that TIE British achievement was
very small, and hurrahing very alb
surd. The Washington Post of the 27th
says of it:
"Al ENGLAND broke out in frantic
j~ubilation. Men went mad in the streets
of London, women wept and screamed
with joy. The whole population of the
island abandoned itself to crazy accla-
nation. The incident was accepted as
a triumph of British valor-a fresh and
unanswerable proof of British superb
GRITTY in arms. No spectacle more alb
surd, not to say childish, has ever been
presented to the scorn n ridicule of
the world"
A we'll known English journalist had
made his most conspicuous. MIR. w.
T. Stead is certainly one of the best
known and most gifted of present Eng
lish journalists. He gives his and it
is we'll to cad it to show how a brave
and able race can lose its head:
Nineteen years ago 554 British
troops established on the top of a
mountain were attacked in front by 200
Beers, who swarmed up the sides of
the mountain and defeated them in a
straight, stand-up fight. The Beers lost
s killed and 8 wounded, while we lost
221 in killed and wounded and 80 pris-
oners. 1t was an honest, S~traightfor-
ward. stand-up fight in which we out
numbered the Beers by three to one,
and where we also enjoyed all the adj
vantages of position. That was the de-
feat, the something on the slate, the
stain OF which after nineteen years
this Christian nation exults that it
has now wiped off with a bloody
sponge.
-Four thousand Beers. with six nine
cannon and two Maxims,
held at bay for eight days 40, 600 Brit
ish troops, supported by a park of pow
erful artillery, field pieces, naval guns,
and nowltzers, which pumped Lyddite
shells upon an improvised laager in a.
river bed. from distances which were