Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-27
CANNOT CATCH THEM
Reason the British Fail to Crush
Out the Beers.
INTERVIEW With GEN. PEARSON
He Tells Of the Burghers' Hatred
of Kitchener.
INCIDENTS OF THE WAR

NEW YORK. November 21.-Samuel Pear
sen, late commissary general of the Trans
vaal, who arrived here yesterday with other
officers of the Boer army, was asked today
by reporter for the Evening Post what
he thought would be the outcome of the
fighting IL South Africa
Well" he replied II don't know. They
can never catch us. And for this reason
no English general dares come against our
little bands of 1000 or 5000 men with a
force of less than 100G0. They are him
dered by the size of the column. Such
generals as De Wet and Louis Botha, VINO
know how to march at night can easily
double on such a column. Thus the chase
begins all over again. Ours is not quite
guerrilla warfare, for We have always about
LOO or 2,ooo men and train OF baggage
wagons
isn't II a strange thing-this war? we
have 1900 men, every one of them happy
and ready to fight. You think OF them as
sul!en and unwilling to go into battle. WY
they sing and eat and sleep where they IKE
merry as larks. Suddenly the word passes
around to get up and fight-no busies, no
music and stuff like that-just a word anu
they are off.
The Men Ask No Questions.
PERHAPS they are to fight five to one
they ask no questions When they wish 10
stop fighting, they say to Botha. 1 M SIGN
of it: I'm going home and he answers,
Very good; there is the wide road But
we are not heroes What could you eX-
pect? We are only farmers and butchers
and policemen, and the like OF that. pen
Viljoen was a policeman, Botha putcnef
and SO on: l was business man. we
can't storm positions, but give us gun
and we can shoot.
How magnificently the British can ad-
vance! They brighten us with the sweep OF
their lines. After one of our battles they
chased us till | in a funk. | assure
YOU We decided our army must be taken
out of there. In one night with thirteen
men to help, / moved 1000 men down the
line seventy-five miles. There was only a
single track railroad with one siding. At 4
in the morning | had burned every bridge,
station and storehouse. destroyed what bag
gage L could not carry, down up the RAJ
road and escaped. All this time the Brit
ish were only fifteen miles away, hearing
nv bombs go off but not daring to adj
vance A party of POO could have cut me
off entirely"
General Pearson. whom do You consider
the best of the English generals?
Butler by all Odds was the reply. He
Is a real fighter and a good fellow. l do
rot wish TO talk of my enemies, but | say
this that If Roberts were taken out of
command in South Africa the English army
would mutiny tomorrow.
Hatred of Kitchener.
The man most ndleu III south Africa ny
the Beers is Kitchener. There is not Il
man in our army who would not shoot him
on sight Kitchener has accomplished moth
ing in South Africa. He nearly got caught
orce by DeWet, and he has not appeared
since.
when the Beers undertook the war. did
they think the British would do so much 10
crush them the general was asked.
I'VE thought that they would send an
army Of about 10000. and we believed we
could defea- that number. They have now
$50, ZOO men. while we have never had over
10000. Why shouldn't they win? Their
bombardments are the most terrible thing
you can imagine. At Coienso from daylight
till dark they threw 4503 tons of lead at
US as we lay in our trenches ! think only
two of our men were killed. We have only
a few cannon, which we move with bullock
teams from place to place We fire here,
and while the British are pounding away
al that position, the gun has been jerkcd
away a quarter of mile.
Many of artillerymen were foreign
ers. but our range finder Pretoris, a
Transvaaler, of twenty-three. Old mill
tary men say he is the best range finder in
the world. Always on the second shot he
gets the range. And he never saw a gun
before the war. We have done things thai
we did not know could do, because we
were forced into it,