Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-10-07
DESPAIR IN BRITAIN
INABILITY TO SUPPRESS RoERS
CAUSES CHAGRIN.
WAR FAR FROM ENDED
.~l+chener's Demand for More Power
Taken as an Indication of His Ina
biity to Control the Situation
Burghers now Ready for Another
Summers Campaign.


General Lord Kitchener's latest proc
lamation ending the war in south
Africa comes the news of another
fierce engagement in which the beers
are repulsed, but with the usual heavy
loss to the British.
1t is reported from Durham that Gen
eral Botha with 1900 men attacked
the garrison of Portita1a, near the Zu-
luland border, September e. The
fight lasted all day. The burghers
were finally repulsed, but at heavy
cost to the garrison, whose losses
were an officer and eleven men killed
and five officers and thirty-eight men
wounded. In addition sixty-three men
are missing, of which number many
are believed to have been killed or
wounded.
The boer commandant, Opperman,
and nineteen burghers are known to
have been killed.
Despair in Britain.
London, Oct IA feeling akin to
despair has settled over England as
result of the more recent develop
ments in regard to the south African
situation. 1t is becoming the settled
belief of the people that the war in
south Africa is further from being
ended today than it was when Bloom
fontein was taken. Lord Kitchener's
demand that he be given power to
hang beers summary whenever taken
would indicate that he confesses his
inability to cope with the elusive
enemy.
There is no longer any conceal
ment of the disagreement between
Lord Kitchener and Secretary Brod
rick and the announcement that Lord
Kitchener had resigned his south
African post would hardly cause any
surprise.
The speech of Sir Henry Asquith at
Fyfe, which is regarded as the utter
ance of Chamberlain, in which Asquith
declared for the punitive reduction OF
the Irish representation in parliament
| is looked upon as significant. In
charging the Irish members with dis
| loyalty it is felt that the government
| is seeking to shift part of the re-
sponsibility for plumbers and incapac-
| ity
While Lord Kitchener IS quarre1ing
with the war Office and Chamberlain
is looking for a scapegoat, the utter
weakness of the government in the
face of greatest crisis it has met since
the Crimean war is exemplified in the
recent appointment of corps COM
manders. General Butler, Sir Evelyn
Wood and the duke of Connaught have
been given army corps at a time when
ability and not social prestige alone
should command promotion.
Nor does Asquith's attack on the
liberal party help matters any. 1t is
nothing more than a further confess
sion Of weakness. Instead of direct
ing the energies Of the government
against the men who are daily making
captures and slaughter of the British
forces in south Africa the people are
RECALLED with domestic quarrels and in
ternecine strife.
All this time the beers are active in
almost every quarter. The grass is
growing on the veldt again and they
are ready for another summers cam
paign. This year the field of opera
tions is wider than it ever was. The
entire region of Cape Colony is either
in open revolt or in a disagreeable
state of unrest The boer commands
are ranging almost every part OF
British territory, making reprisals and
finding recruits.
The British force in the field is
practically incompetent. It is not
mobile enough to be effective in pur-
suit and seemingly incapable Of prop
er defense when attacked. 1t is also
an open secret that if it were not for
the boer prisoners at Pretoria and
other central camps the lines of COM
munication between Lord Kitchener
and his base could not be maintained.
Lord Kitchener cannot guard every
mile of the railway, and if it were not
for the fear that their women and
children, who are in the recancentrado
camps, would be permitted to starve
the beers would not permit supply
train to pass.
The humiliating condition Of the
British army being dependent on the
mercy of the enemy can no longer be
concealed. With these facts known
request of Lord Kitchener for a freer
hand and disregard Of the usages of
war can hardly be taken as anything
else than ominous admissions of in
ability.
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