The evening times., 1900-03-12
The Advance ON RIoeHfontcin.

Before Lord Roberts advance from Pop
lar Grove on Saturday morning. ihe con-
sensus Of British military opinion. both
al the front and at home was that the
road to Bloemfontein was practically open.
II was expected however that there
would be lighting at Petrusbsr- south Of
Poplar Grove. The event proved 70 be ex-
actly the reverse. General Tucker occu-
pied Petrusberg without opposition, while
The parallel column to the north appears
10 have fought steadily from Poplar Grove
10 Abraham's kraal and Aasyogcl Kop. on
he line between which points The British
advance rested yesterday This is The line
on which-reasOning on the basis Of in
formation published weeks ago-we have
predicted that the main Boer fight in de-
fence OF Bloemfontein would be made. II
extends from Abraham's Kraal to Kip
Pan. the latter being only few miles
south Of Aasyogel Kop. This place is
twenty-five miles from Bloemfontein and
he leading London writers were this
morning Of the opinion that Lord Roberts
would now have no difficulty in pushing
We must not forget that a similar view
was entertained three days ago. when
The road was reported clear but was not
found so. On general principles il would
be safer to expect that a more serious
fight than either that OF Paardeberg or
Poplar Grove will occur Immediately on
the Abrahams Kraal-AasvOgel line, or be-
atively small force in the Free State as to
be incapable Of finding any position around
Bloemfontein not certain Of being turned
by the British. OF course. in the latter
case the Beers viii be unable TO do more
than fight rear guard actions and to him
der as much as possible Lord Roberts on
ward march. trusting to make successful
stand in the TransvaaI. or hoping that
European complications may result in in
tsryention and so save them from the ne
cessity OF unqualified surrender.
Perhaps it would be premature to in
dulge any idea that the backbone Of
Boer resistance is broken, but there are
indications which seem TO point that way.
From the day General Cronie reireated
from Magarsfontein to the present iime.
Lord Roberts has shown ability to cut
flank his opponents on every occasion, and
ii is probably due only 10 the 3ifficuIt
character of the country traversed and 10
the necessary slowness of his movements
hat he has not captured a good many
thousand more Beers than he did at Koo-
does Rand.
II there is to be a battle this side of
Bloemfontein il should occur today or TO-
morrow. How serious such an engage
meut might be is impossible tc guess.
That. as We have said. should denend upon
the numerical strength OF the Boer forces
in the Free State. With the generalship
that appears to mark the course Of Rob
erts and Kitchener, the other side is be-
ing kept occupied on the Orange River and
in Natal. As to the former. il is rather
confusing TO learn that the Beers are still
in control of the Norvals Pont and Coles
berg crossings. Why they should not Rave
moved northeast before Roberts reached
Poplar Grove is not easy TO understand in
she absence of definite information. 1t is
not reasonable to suppose that their gen.
erals could have thought themselves
strong enough to defeat Clements, Gata-
ere. and Brabant and to attack Roberts
communications, unless upon the theory
that they expected such a general Afrikan-
der rebellion to support them, that il
would turn back the British army from its
northern movement. As matter Of fact