The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-30

NEW YORK, April pa correspondent
OF the sun, who is with General Rob
erts' army. writing from Bloomfontein
under date OF March p. says: ! viii try
TO tell the story Of an uucommercial risk.
Even in this country at this time it would
not be an exact description 20 call it a
war risk. for all the calculations turned on
beef and biscuits and forage and OK and
mule transport at one end and at the other
on engineering work and iron Orders and
pontoons and trestles Of crossed railway
sleepers. Ordnance and ammunition were
not discussed as the most important fac
tors, SO that the best title for the enter
prise is to call it an monumental risk
undertaken on a large scale.
Lord Kitchener was the underwater and
the cargo was Lord Roberts South African
field force, numbering 10000 men. The
risk was taken up at a place called Poplar
Grove on the Modder River. fifty miles
west of this place. The date-which is
important-was March S, Just a fortnight
ago. We had arrived at Poplar Grove on
the previous afternoon after the most pc
cuiar military performance I have yet
seen as the days work Of two opposing
armies. Lord Roberts moved his various
units into the lines OF position he had Sc
lected with the hope OF out1anking the
Beers. General French brought his di
vision Of SOO0 cavalry from the north 10
the south Of the river on the previous
night and moved at dawn to the extreme
south Of the British position. The infan-
try divisions Of General Colville and Cen
eral Kelly-Kenny moved along eastward
to the left of the cavalry. on the north Of
the river bank where the Beers were 10
be cut of should they run up country from
French. The other infantry division, Cen
eral fuckers, was twenty miles south to
see that re-enforcements did not reach
the Beers. Il should have been a bad
time for Commandant Christian De Wet,
who was TO have been the victim Of STRAIT
egy and big numbers. But in vain the net
is spread in the sight Of any Boer Chris
tan De Wet had seen too much and he
conducted a successful retirement at a
range Of 1900 yards from the British ar
tillery. The infantry had no part in the /
performance and the cavalry found their /
stern chase unpr0ductive. Il was after 1
this great and bloOdless operation-lfke a I
champion prizefight where the combat /
ants carefully keep the entire diameter /
of the ring between them-that We rested /
outwit the Boer, took up an monumental /
risk.
The Mistake Cronie Made
Cronje was captured because he refused
TO allow that a British army could feed
Itself away from railway He was wrong.
Even the sacrifice Of 200 odd wagons laden
with supplies weighing more than a mil
lion pounds, which were let go to the
Beers at Waterfall Drift with scarcely a
struggle rather than leopard the conyerg-
ing movement on CTonje did not prevent
the British from sitting and getting food
by transport until they tired out the
Beers after ten days Of the appalling
nausea Of their Paardeberg lager Could
another great Boer force be caught out
right by undertaking British ability to
feed large army mostly moving slowly
On foot in a foreign country?
The British troops we're getting rather !
loo far from their railway bases at Mod
Ter River TO Kimberley. They had 10 keep
open lines Of communication over forty
niles on the veldt TO POPLAR Grove and
he Beers knew this difficulty must in ,
Tease the nearer the British approached |
BloemfOntein. Until February the SUD-
plies for the invading field force had been /
brought up slowly but regularly by con
roy. Lord Kitcheners uncommerciaI risk |
vas 10 lay IN supplies for twenty DAYS ] ,
or 10000 men; TO drop all conveys and
ines Of communications with bases at the
ear; and to give the army the twenty |
lays 10 take Blbemfontein, repair an the |
'ailway south into Cape Colony. rebuild :
he bridge al Norvals Pont on the Orange s
River. and draw their regular supplies by {
al from the great main depot at De Aar. !
The first risk was leaving the railway
The next was cutting the painter abso- 1
utely
Preparing for the Advance.
So confident was Lord Kitchener IN his {
stimate. or so clearly did he see that II !
failed through rains or Beers or any risk
n the veldt, his presence on a derelict in :
1idocean Of sand and sparse shrub could 7
OF save ii, that be went with a few Of his q
tan officers that day March g. to Kimber- q
~ by road, took train for De Aar. came {