The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-07-26

the Beers have SHOWN themselves brave
land that their leaders have left an in
delible impress upon the methods OF
conducting a guerilla warfare" Thus
ray be crystallized the opinion of Pay
master Sergeant II. Irwin, formerly OF
the famous Canadian regiment when
fought in South Africa under the name
"Strathcona's Horse" Mr.. Irwin aft
ler his return from South Africa came
here TO visit his brothers, who are To-
Icated on the Island of Hawaii, and is
now stopping in this city. Mr. Irwin
said further
while l do not consider that Gen
|eral Dewet is a great general, certainly
he is the greatest of the irregular nght-
ers of modern times, and my reason Tor
not placing him ahead of his superior
General Botha, is contained IN one
Thought. 1t is the great general WHO
will fight with his army and stay Win
Them The man is a great fighter VINO
will lead his force into battle and lead
them out again. This last Dewet will
mot do To illustrate that point, and TO
show Just how Dewet is in so many
had an experience while with my com
Inland on swing we made through the
lOrange Free State after tie Boer com
lmauder We had been through the
jTransyaal and finally made our head
Iouarters at Bethulie. We were attach
ed to a considerable force and had some
warm fighting on more than one occa-
tsion.
Our colonel was convinced that De-
Iwet had really no command We finally
Iproved this to be the case. While one
Ienga cement was going on, we being on
the flank. saw a small party of horse
linen tietach themselves from the main
body of the enemy and make away to-
Ward the hills. A detachment under the
colonel himself went after this party.
THE glasses showed that pewet was in
THAT party We had just received some
new mounts and We're in good shape
flor chase We gained on the fleeing
general until we had come up within
ithree-q quarters of mile. Then we We're
lovertaken by an adjutant with an order
THAT we fall back upon the main body of
1.-THE force. That was most heart-break-
ling for we believed that we could have
Iovertalzen the Beers, as we We're light
and had been saving our horses.
This proved to us. and other events
showed the correctness of the conclu-
sion that Dewet does not have a force
of himself. He is the leader of all the
guerilla forces now in the field. and he
has with, him only a squad of men, per-
haps not more than twenty-five at any
time. With this small body he makes
his way about the country, which he
knows thoroughly, When he finds a
4 ,,lo f,c t,,;lx I,a toll oh nf
commando In the vicinity. fights 1t with
rare skill, too, and if the tide is against
the Beers he slips away with his small
, following, and then the local leader has
his men disappear as completely as
possible. This makes it possible for the
j general to be all over the country in a
| Ishort space of time and has indicated
that his force is extremely mobile.
During the time of our service in the
field we did not find any one who would
say other than that the Beers in their
. iconduct of their field campaign had
Eshown great knowledge and skill. The
tactics of Dewet in particular, as l said,
have made an indelible impress upon
the methods of the conduct of cam
paign with light horse. The Boer army
was almost entirely one made up of
horsemen. The men ride perfectly and
they have all the frontiersman's skill
in carrying their trains of baggage and
supplies. l do not think Captain Reich
mann was too strong in his commenda-
ton of their courage and ability as
fighters Their campaign now is to di-
vide their forces into small commandos
and harass the British troops, with the
lend of making the cost OF carrying of
the war as heavy as possible.
of Dewet and Botha in placing decoys
assigning positions to their forces and
the fighting of their men, displayed a
knowledge of the art of war which was
remarkable They~were able to give us
some hard raps and now even 1t is a
matter of the clearing of the country of
supplies, SO that they cannot remount
their forces and cannot exist upon the
country. that will give al early vic
tory to the British forces yet in the
field Personally / knew of few inhu
manities. / have personal knowledge
that shots were fired under the white
flag. We lost two good men once when
lshots were fired from house where the
white flag was over the roof. Our Skin
mishers approached and were shot
down. There were nine men in the
lhouee and we got only four before they
tco,sid reach the hills.
AT another time when l was at the
field hospital for several hours during
enc afternoon we were fired upon.
ltloueh there was no other target which
might have offered an excuse for a fire
into that direction. On other occasions
I have &noHrn when the field hospital
had TO b. moved into greater cover on
account Of the fire of the enemy I have
never heard until recently that there
was such a thing as the killing of
wounded. | can hardly believe that
that is possible. for they are splendid
fellows. on the whole, and those of
them | saw were not of that kind.
Il consider that one of the mistakes
was IN not clearing the country Of its
horses when we went through 1t first
Then it was crime for our men to take
: any horses. This meant that the Beers
in the field would return and secure
Iremounts whenever they wanted them