Newport weekly independent., 1901-09-27
The London correspondent of the

in South Africa as follows: The Boers commenced their third | summer campaign last week. The opening engagement within two days resulted, so far as the British censor ship discloses, in eighty British kill ed and 370 wounded and taken pris- oners, as well as five guns captured. This exceeds the loss in the opening fights in October, 1899, when the combatants first met. It would be a serious mistake to assume that be- cause about twenty thousand Boers are prisoners it would be impossible for battles of the magnitude of the first struggles at the Tugela and Modder river to. be repeated. The Boers in the past year have probably recruited 5000 colonial Dutch, while the republican forces are now at their fullest available strength, in- stead of, as originally, leaving one man of each family to reside on the farm. On the other hand, Lord kltchener's army, although five times the strength of Gen. Buffers first force, does not represent a pro- portionately greater combatant ca pacity. Before the invasion of the Boer republics, the total British force was available for seeking and engaging the Boers, but now nearly three thousand miles of railway must meet daily and nightly. In consequence, about seventy thousand are free to deal with the command oes. There is no means of enumerat- ing the armed Boers, but there are probably over twelve thousand fight ing men with an invaluable intelli- gence department, which consists of the strong sympathy of 90 per cent of the inhabitants of the entire area over which they have hitherto moved. Commander in Chief Botha's pres ent plan is simple, and apparently workable. As soon as Lord Kitch- ems date of September 15 for the general surrender of the burghers lapsed, and the Boer leaders were placed under the ban of the forfeit ure of their property and lifelong exile, 1t was obvious that, having de- clded not to surrender, they could serve no purpose by remaining in the republican territory. They, there fore, struck immediately into the British colonies, where they were en- abled to make immediate reprisals on their enemy's subjects. It is sig nificant that there is no record of their releasing prisoners during the weeks engagement. If the British authorities attempt any particular severity in the new phase of the war, the fact that the Boers are able to collect armed hostages whenever they try, may induce the English to pause. The present position thus re- mains difficult, though in a different way from which it was two years ago. Many of the British troops, particularly the mounted men, are in a most unsatisfactory condition. The infantry has long succumbed to the fatalistic idea that they are trudging after an agile will-o'-the- wlsp, whom they never expect to catch, while the recent importations of British horsemen, like the Bour- bons, learn nothing and forget noth- ing. Secretary of War Broderick's s most notable contribution to the field force was in sending out 15,- 900 yoemanry. Lord Kitchener's criticism of them, in report which the war office was constrained to publish, was: ''Many of them were unable either to ride or shoot, and others are quite unsuitable for the work in hand. Numbers of them had to be taught the elements of a soldiers business when they were sorcly needed at the front Over 100 of the 400 officers had to be sent home."
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