The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1900-06-23
AFFAIRS As seen IN LONDON
SOUTH AFRICAN CONFLICT.
Pretoria Not Worth Much-Critics
Want to Know why Roberts Fail
ed to Get Forces of Botha-Gloomy
in London.

London, June lS.-What with exciting
news from the war that was supposed to
be over in South Africa, sensational re-
ports in regard to the war that is said to
be pending in China, and alarming dis
patches relative TO the rebellion against
British rule in Ashanti, to say nothing
of the gay Ascot meeting, the death OF
Mrs. Gladstone and the death of the duke
of Wellington, the past week IN England
has been one of considerable interest. In
fact, so generally absorbed has the nation
become in its own affairs that those of
other countries fail to elicit the slightest
comment.
The war, as it is learned General Kelly
Kenny said to General Tucker few
weeks ago, is 1.-The rummiest l ever saw.
If We" referring to the division COM
manders, "do things wrong we are sent
home in disgrace. If we do them right
Roberts gets all the credit"
And the war is "rummier'' than ever
General Kelly-Kenny had any idea OF.
The spectacle presented this week OF
victorious British general, in command OF
the greatest army this country ever put
under one man, shut off from all COM
munication with the outer world, while
units of his force-of the 700 men-were
annihilated by a supposedly pacified enc
my whose territory was annexed, stands
almost unique in military history. While
Lord Roberts is not blamed for these dis
asters, there is a strong feeling among the
leading South Africans in London that he
Dratnr
Those who know every inch around the
Transvaal capital say Lord Roberts took
the most arduous side to approach 1t,
whereas, with easier means of access, he
. might have gone eastward and shut oil
, all possibility of General Botha's escape.
! As it is, the capture of Pretoria was prac-
tically an empty triumph, except Tor Its
; moral effect. What old South African
campaigners are asking is "Why did Rob
. erts not get Botha and his men and take
Pretoria afterward, instead of occupying
. a deserted town and letting the Boer:
:. calmly walk away under the nose of his
= overwhelming force?" Yet, while thu;
question is frequently heard, there is sucf
general admiration fer Lord Roberts anC
= belief in the efficacy of his tactics tha
= even those who ask are loath to criticis'
4. him until they know all the details
\ The patent liabilities OF the general
q fighting at the front have caused endles
.. criticism since the war began, but scarce
ly any blunder in South Africa has draw
r upon it so much condemnation as the re
q cent Aldershot maneuvers, when 3O,OO
ID troops engaged in a sham battle on tn
hottest day of the year. The mques
Re upon four of the enlisted men who die
st from heat prostration records the fac
that the troops started early in the morn
r ing without an adequate meal, and tina
he the forage caps they wore were utterly IL
sufficient to protect their heads from tn
e. sun. A more damning Indictment OF mi
r itary equipment was scarcely ever
quickly secured than by this simple vel
G dict of a coroners jury Besides the me
} who died, some 400 had to go to the ho
8, pitfalls. The result is that the obnoMou
forage caps are likely to be done ava
with.