Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1900-06-22
AFFAIRS As SEEN N 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 'the funniest / 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 1'rumnier" than ever
General Kelly Kenny had any idea of.
The spectacle presented this week Of a
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
or some one Numbered at Pretoria.
Those who know every inch around the
Transvaal capital say Lord Roberts took
the most arduous side to approach it.,
whereas, with easier means Of access, he
might have gone eastward and shut off
all possibility Of General Botha's escape.
As it is, the capture of Pretoria was prac-
ticaily an empty triumph, except for 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
deserted town and letting the Beers
calmly walk away under the nose of his
overwhelming forcef" Yet, while this
question is frequently heard, there is such
general admiration for Lord Roberts and
belief in the efficacy of his tactics that
even those who ask are loath to criticise
him until they know all the details
The patent liabilities of the generals
fighting at the front have caused endless
criticism since the war began, but scarce
" any blunder in South Africa has drawn
upon il SO much condemnation as the re-
cent Aldershot maneuvers, when 10000
troops engaged in sham battle on the
hottest day Of the year. The inquest
upon four of the enlisted men who died
from heat prostration records the TACT
that the troops started early in the morn
ing without an adequate meal, and that
the forage caps they wore were utterly in
sufficient to protect their heads from the
sun. A more damning indictment of mil
itary equipment was scarcely ever so
quickly secured than by this simple YER
dict of coroner's jury. Besides the men
who died, some 400 had to go to the hos
pitfalls. The result is that the obnoxious
forage caps are likely to be done away
with.