The evening times., 1900-04-18
British War Scandals.

Just what object the British War Office
had in view in publishing Lord Roberts
despatch criticising Generals Butler and
Warren, we cannot imagine. Imperial
military prestige is not exactly at high
water mark at the present time and it is
difficult to see what imp ovement will ae
crue to it from public exposure Of the
laundering incompetency of responsible
field generals. At least one would think
that serious matter Of the kind would
have been kept quiet until necessary
changes of command had been effected. AS
the affair stands, both Butler and Warren
become impossible in ,heir present posi-
tions, and Aiil have 10 resign o. suilei re-
call
No one who has watched the develop
ment Of the war in South Africa with any
thing like critical interest will be sur
prised at the caustic comments OF Lord
Roberts on the Spion Kop fight. He
blames Warren severely for changing the
whole plan of campaign withou. notifying
his superior. We have always wondered
how it came to pass that the turning
movement against the be.iegers Of Lady
smith, by way of Acton Homes, which
promised so well and seemed to be almost
complete, collapsed so quickly 1t appears
that Warren, who commanded the British
left, concluded that he could not success
fully outfauk the Boer right. and so DC
cided on a frontal attack without h0wey-
er notifying Butler.
Warren blunGered badly in connection
with the Spion Kop attempt. After the
commander of the assaulting column was
shot be ordered the next officer in rank 20
report at headquarters for Instructions;
and while that officer was absent from the
hill. the Colonial major, Thorneycroft tenn
porarily in charge took the grave respon-
sibiIity of ordering retreat which sacTi-
feed the position compelled the army to
fall back behind the Tugela ana rendered
the whole campaign a failure. It was Wa--
ren's business to visit the Kop while il was
in the possession Of his troops. s. says Bull
Ter. Roberts agrees and adds that it was
Buffers business to see that Warren at
tended TO his. when the fate Of Ladysmith
and the honor Of the army seemed 10 de-
pend upon holding the elevation. Butler
was not justified in trusting Warren i'm
plcitly. The latter had but just disobeyel
his instructions in regard TO operations on
the extreme left. II was sad illustration
Of bad management all around. and we are
obliged TO agree with the general chief
that there is little TO choose between the
two delinquents. II is right that both
should go. and it is TO be regretted that in
all probability they viii be succeeded by
other mutton heads equally as dangerous.
There is something altogether wrong in
the British military system. Just what it is
we are not prepared TO say. The first crop
of political brigadiers in our civil war did
not make half the spectacle OF themselves
that some of England's S veterans have Our
trouble was that we did not have any
trained officers to speak Of. But the Brit
ish have been campaigning in Asia and
Africa continuously for an hundred years,
and it has been assumed that even such
training and experience would count for
something in a serious war. 1t has not ap-
parently. Almost everybody seems to have
made egregious mistakes. Butler, War
ren. Hart, Methuen, Gatacre. and others
have done things that a boy just out of
West Point would be ashamed Of No one
is infallible, Field Marshal "Bobs'' alone
excepted. Even he. with seyenty-five thou
sand men around him. permits a few Boe-s
TO hold the Bloemfontein pumping plant
and shut off his water supply.