The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-12
LADYsMITH A YORKTOWN.
British Empire Is Face to Face With
a Crisis.

New York, Feb. 1.-THE Tribune's
London correspondent writes:
The astounding collapse of the Upper
Tugela campaign and the continuance
of the impasse at Modder river and on
the southern frontier of the Orange
Free State have brought the English
people to the verge of an imperial crisis
unparalleled since Yorktown. That is
an ominOus word, which the leading
English journal was the first to use
and it has been taken up with one ac-
cord by the press. Sir George Whites
garrison, like Lord CornwalPs army, is
hopelessly beleaguered, and its fate
seems to be sealed unless it can break
through the enemys lines and fight it's
way to the Tugela at the point of the
bayonet; and the Kimberley garrison is
in an equally precarious condition.
The magnitude of the British mill
tary preparations has not inundated
the two little Dutch republics. If Lady
smith be their Yorktown, with the full
force of the analOgies, they are in the
way Of winning it and bringing their
war of independence to a close, and
there is no hostile fleet to be fought at
sea by another Rodney who may break
the force of disaster on land by restor-
ing the prestige of the British navy
The soldiers have done their work
with splendid fortitude and gallantry
and the administrative departments
have supported them with untiring en-
ergy and amazing resources of organi-
cation. The generals have failed, and
the military staff which has been re-
sponsible for the conduct of the war,
has broken down and brought reproach
upon the nation. If their advice was
not needed in June and July when the
mobilization of the army corps was
urged by Lord WOlseley, they were al
lowed free hand from the opening of
the war in October and have themselves
to blame if they have been outnumbered
and outgeneralled by Dutch comman-
derS who had never studied the art of
war but had gone from their cattle
breeding farms to the battleffelds
among the kOpjeS. With their breasts
covered with decorations won in con-
ulctS with Semi-civilized or barbarOuS
races, and their SelfeSte em inflated with
The vain glorious assumption that they
were the only European soldiers with
continuous experience in the science of
modern warfare. British generals have
conducted the campaign in South At
rica as though 1t were a series of sham
fights on Salisbury plain, regulated by
drill book and the formulate of peace
training.
At the opening of the war there was
nothing like an ineligible or reason
able Plan of military defense. There
were between 1000 and 10000 regulars
ana local leVieS scattered along the
western and northern frontiers of Cape
colony and in northern Natal. Mill
tary defense required concentration of
these forces at one or two points until
relnforcements could arrive. In Cape
Colony there was no attempt to choose
defensible positions or to collect the
forces, and in Natal an unsanitary
station, Ladysmith, was held in force
because it was the Aldershot of South
Africa, and a portion of the garrison
was diverted to Glencoe for the protec-
ton of coal mine. The headquarters
staff may not have been responsible for
the first lines of colonial defense but it
must be held accountable for the stra-
tegic blunder of shutting up Sir George
Whites garrison in Ladysmith instead
of directing him to retreat, fighting at
the Tugela and then at the Nooi river
and keeping open his communications
with the sea. If this had been done he
would have received reinforcements by
the middle of November and the siege
and fall OF Ladysmith would have been
avoided.
Sir Redvers Butler left England with
his plan Of campaign clearly outlined