The age-herald., 1900-02-11
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BRITISH FORGE IN AFRICA
Not Over a Hundred Thousand Men Availa-
 ble

From the New York Sun.
 The statement made by MT. Wyndham, the under secretary. of state for war, in the British house of commons on Thursday | that the British forces in South Afrlcs comprised 142SOO unmounted and S7SOO mounted men, with 152 guns, of which 30 are siege and 3S naval guns, seems suseep- tible of considerable modification when alyzed. On January 20 the total force Of regular troops actually in South Africa and on their way there from India and England was 15 regiments of cavalry, 9 batteries of horse artillery, A field batteries, ? tain batteries, and ss batalions of infantry. Putting these different organizations at their full strength, they would work out follows:
 The fifteen regiments of cavalry at 300 horse each. which is more than some of those in the field have, give 75OO effectives.
 The nine batteries of horse artillery with 130 men and eighty horses each, give 1,17O men and 72O horses.
 The forty-four field batteries, with the same complements of men and horses, give TYPO men and 3,52O horses.
 The two mountain batteries, with 100 men and 70 horses, or mules, each gives 200 men and 140 horses or mules.
 The eighty-three battalions of infantry, reckoning them at their full war strength, would give S3,000 men, but 1t is doubtful if the average effective of the whole number can be reckoned at more than $50 each. This would reduce the total to 70,550 men.
 The entire strength, then, of the regular forces would be by the above analysis S7,140 men and 11,Ss0 horses. To the number of horses, however, should be added those of the mounted infantry actually in the field. What the number of these may be cannot be stated with certainty, as no definite re- port of their number has appeared in any account of the forces in the field. From the fragmentary accounts of the forces engaged on different occasions, they can not be estimated al much more than 5000. This would bring the number up to 17,SS0.
 The total of the colonial contingents does not come uplto more than 5000 men, with perhaps 5000 horses, and the local Natal and Cape Colony corps, though officially put at 2OO0O, are, from the accounts publish ed, not much more than half that number, probably 12,OoO men with, say, 10000 horses. Then there are the naval brigades number ing about 1000 men altogether their guns DelilS IlONeu dDOul Dy country OAeH
 This would bring the fighting force up to about 105,140 men and 27 ,Ss0 horses. The rest of the men and horses of the 1s0, 900 men and 37,SOO horses of which MT. Wyndham spoke are still in the air, the Eighth divls- ion, the 10000 yeomanry, and the 15 OOO vol unteers and militia being only in process of organization and a large part not even yet enrolled.
 Tba1 # there are a full squadron of cavalry, one mountain battery, and the strength of moro than three effective battalions of infantry prisoners of Bloemfontein and Pretoria Drafts to fill up the vacancies caused by death, disablement. and disease are on their way out from England or being got ready None of the English papers as yet at hand has published clear, tabulated statement of the various corps and organizations ac- tually in the field in South Africa; and it is quite certain that the statement of the un- der secretary of state for war errs by over- estimate rather than by underestimate.