Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-10-29
BuLLER's FATAL SPEECH
Address Which Brought Down
Upon Him England's Wrath.
ADVISED NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
The Suggestion, He Says, Was
"spatchcocked" Into . Dispatch to
Sir G. White, Who Was In COM
mand of the Beleaguered Garrison.
Experience In Tugela Valley.

Sir G. White,, Who Was In Com
mand of the Beleaguered Garrison.
Experience In Tugela Valley.
The speech In which Sir Redvers
Butler replied to the animadversions
was made at a luncheon given to cele-
brate the return of the Westminster
rife volunteers, attached to the Kings
Royal rifles. 1t made sensation
among the audience and was almost
universally condemned in the press for
it's amazing indtscretions," and espe-
cia,ly inasmuch as 1t admitted vir-
tual authorization to Sir George White
to surrender his force Of 10000 men
shut up in Ladysmith.
These are Sir Redvers Buffers own
words:
II attacked Colenso on Dec. Is.
was unsuccessful 1t was very try
ing day. was at work thirty-six
hours and in the saddle fourteen. 1t
was the hottest day Of the whole year.
and l had rank bad luck. l still be-
lieve and hope to show that if had
uOL lIuu luCh i Adu CAOu6A lllCA
to get in. But that Is another story.
l attacked Colenso and failed, and,
HAY ing failed, l had to consider, not
myself, but the people in front Of me
the garrison Of Ladysmith.
II knew that horse sickness was al
most certain to come very heavily and
strongly in the Tugela valley. l knew
that enteric fever was epidemic, and
almost continuously becoming cpl
demic, in the Tugela valley at that
time of the year, and knew, or thought
l knew, that the Beers were putting
dead horses in the water which the
garrison of Ladysmith was obliged to
drink. | thought l knew that l had
official information in writing that the
garrison could not be fed beyond the
end of the year. was wrong. have
found out since. At that time
thought that and believed it.
"The message | had to send to Sir
George White was that had made the
attack and that had failed and that
l could not possibly make another at
lOI IL anu thCiA \ was va
tain that could do 1t only by slow
fighting and not by rushing.
THAT was the message had to send,
and had to ask him certain questions.
| wrote a telegram out and looked at
it two or three times and said: 1T Is
a mean thing to send telegram like
that. He Is a gallant fellow. He will
sit still to the end was In commands;
whatever responsibility there was there
was mine, and thought, Ought l not
to give him some help. some assistance
and some lead. and something which,
If it came to the last absolute moment
would have enabled him to say, Well,
after all, have Sir Redvers Buffers
as my commander-opinion in favor of
this
Therefore I spatchcocked into the
middle of the telegram sentence in
which suggested that 1t would be nee
essary to abandon-to surrender-the
garrison; what he should do when he
surrendered, and how he should do it,
l put it between one question he had
to answer and followed it with another
question. did not like to suggest to
a man | believed to be a brave man
and good soldier-l did not like to
suggest that he should do this or that
or the other. hut | stuck that into the
thing simply because if he ever had to
give up it might be some sort of cover
to man whom | thought in much
greater difficulty than ! was myself.
That was the telegram
With regard to the actual words of
the telegram which was photographed
to Ladysmith General Butler said he
wanted to bring the man who said that
he had counseied Sir George White to
surrender down into the ring. and for
that purpose he challenged him to bring
forward the telegram. He knew where
the telegram was. 1t was in the hands
of the editor of a magazine who had
made himself notorious some years ago
by raking over the garbage of story
fifty years old and dishing it up hot.
The telegram must have been stolen,
because it was in cipher. addressed to
Sir George White and perfectly private.
He challenged the production Of it and
how 1t was got. He would then publish
the telegram in full and let the public
Judge