The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-01-12
BLAME FOR
THE DEFEATS
The Wreck of Buffers
Strategy,
ROBERTS BADLY NEEDED
DR.. E, Benjamin Andrews Says a
World War Would Follow
British Success,

LONDON, Dec -, / a. m.-The WAR;
Office has taken advantage of the ear
lest opportunity for explaining thatthe
appointment of Lord Roberts as Com
mander in Chief is not intended as an
indication of lack of confidence in Gen
aral Butler. Apologies are not needed,
since the crisis in South Africa Is too
serious for consideration OF personal
disappointments. General Butler can
not conduct the campaign in Natal and
retain direct supervision of the opera
tons in Cape Colony and on the west
srn border. General Forester alkerl
has been acting rs General Butler
deputy, although his own department,
that of communications, requires his
unremiUting vigilance, and General
Warren can only represent him TEN
porarily But Lord Roberts, the best
soldier in the army, is needed as Com
mander in Chief, with Kitchener, the
best organizer, at the right hand, asI
chief of staff, and the Ministers have
put two of the best men where they
ought to be.
The action of the Government meets
with universal approval. General Bull
Ter has warm friends who assert that
he ought not to have been set aside on
account OF Colonel Longs blunder in
taking the guns too near the river But
there are two facts which they choose
to overlook. One is the repulse of Bull
ler's army with heavy losses at criti-
cal stage of the campaign The other
is the complete paralysis of his army
corps, which was expected to march to
Bloemfontein and Pretoria, but is now
scattered over South Africa and has
failed to accomplish any definite pur-
pose. There is a general impression
that the War Office has been conducted
in the interest of what is known as the
"Wolseley gang" and that it needs a
good shaking UP. Certainly the selec-
ton of Lord Wolseley's rival, Lord
Roberts, the best of all the Indian
fighters, is a rebuke to the Head
quarters favorites, who have been man
aging the campaign and making seri-
Gus mistakes.
Did Not Act on Information.
sir John Ardagh, nead of the Intel
ligence Department, may have furnish
ed an accurate list of the Boer artillery
available for war, but the Staff in that
case had acted strangely in sending in
ferior guns to the seat of war when
there were howitZer batteries within
1
and all the details OF the transport on
shore may have been well managed,
but it remains true that the Staff did
not adapt itself to the precise require
ments of the campaign with mounted
infantry, remarkable for mobility, and
that the cavalry arm was neglected.
The new programme of the War Office
calls for long range artillery and an
unusually large proportion of mounted
troops. The shaking up process has al
ready been useful. 1t is not necessary
for Lord Wolseley's indiscreet friends
to explain under their breath that the
Queen has been suspicious of him
since refusal to go to Canada as Vice
roy, and that Lord Roberts has been
sent to Cape Town in order to provide
the Duke of Connaught with a high
command in Ireland. The best soldier
is needed for an emergency of supreme
Importance, and the Queens Ministers
have summoned him, heartbroken
though he is from the loss of his only
son.
World War Predicted.
Chicago, Dec. 27.-"If Great Brit
ain is ultimately successful in South
Africa the Powers of the world will
unite to resist successfully her advance.
y COdllllOH ia ne dSdlhoL
British domination, and when this war
of the nations comes, which side will
the United States take? We must take
one side or the other. That will be a
sad day for our Nation. Yet / say we
never have got into G. scrape vet that
we did not get out of, and as prophet
ic American / tell you we never shall.
The foregoing statement was made
by Dr. e. Benjamin Andrews, former
president of Brown University and now
Superintendent of the Chicago public
schools, in his address on "The War in
South Africa" at the Bethel African
Methodist Episcopal Church last even
ing. DR.. Andrews startled his hearers
by the declaration that international
war was inevitable and would follow
the success of Great Britain in the Boer
war He announced that from the mo-
ment kruger's followers surrendered,
England necessarily would come in
conflict with the other Powers in car
rying out her plans of colonization.
He declared that clashes would fol-
low the attempt to build the Cape-to-
Cairo Railroad, and that the contem
plated effort of Great Bri.ain TO build
railroad from the Suez Canal to Bonn
bay, which would give that nation a
direct means of throwing munitions of
war into the lands about the head
waters of the Euphrates, would be re-
sisted.