The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-17
AN UNvARNIsHED STATEMENT
The Real Opinion Among Intelligent
Englishmen About the Boer War.

LONDON. April fittings here still
look uncommonly blue for the Boer war
1t is likely now that it will go on indefi-
nitely, and there are rurnors of a very
disquieting character about the actual
condition of the army in South Africa.
making 1t look as IL we should practically
have to replace the whole lot of troops
(and that soonJ on account of the condi-
ton of fatigue they have all been reduced
to by these prolonged operations In the
meantime Brother Boer is perfectly hap
Ply, having lost everything that he stands
to lose and being virtually assured of
practically as good terms whether he
gives in today or two years hence.
The fact really is that war, under the
conditions under which we are fighting
in South Africa. is about the silliest an
achronism in the world. All the con-
querors of past days who have been great
conquerors have owed their success to
the determination of their enemies We
are carrying on the war as a war of lin
tied moral liability. so that we have ac-
tually got into this ridiculous position
that there are now in South Africa about
1900 Beers in arms in the field against.
say 1900 in various prisons or special
settlements like Ceylon and St. Helena,
while we with an army of 100000 men are
occupying their country Tor such parts of
it as we can cover and are at our own
expense maintaining the whole of their
women and children. Would not Tame
lin. Alexander the Great, Attila, or Ma
poleon have smiled at these childish tao
tics? To profess a barbaric policy and
to carry it out as If you were civilized
men is too ridiculously inconsistent for
anything.
In the meantime. We have a Government
at home heroically defiant-yet, having
proclaimed in August last that the war
was over-finding itself now six months
behind in finding the necessary ships and
munitions of war for carrying it to n sue
cessful termination: an administrative
general in South Africa, the agent of the
said Government, much more anxious to
make peace and willing to offer better
terms than the Government itself. and
finally the stern and unbending soldier,
silent and uncomplaining-the cOmman-
der-in-chief. Lord Roberts-still more anX-
ious to make peace and Offering better
terms still The British public, with
characteristic fog-bound minds, having
been filled with the belief that the war
was over in August, is quite incapable of
realizing that it is still going on, and,
consequently II SHOWS neltner enthusiasm
for the new preparations nor Impotence
al their inadequacy. but watches with
delighted wonder the deXterity of Mr..
Chamberlain in scoring off his opponents
instead of tackling the matter in hand.
The death of the Queen and the new
accession have been such a splendid th,=-
atrical success that all weightier matters
are delayed. Russia is not slow to i'm
prove the shining hour. and Germany.
having entered into a bond Of perennial
friendship and brotherhood with us. is
protesting volubly to the world that the
bond is not worth the paper on which it
is written. We have not even got an
Aguinaldo to put In n cage and carry
around.
You can guess how business and the
really important affairs of men. viz:
their economic affairs. suffer amid all
this inept administration. The most de
pressing feature of all is that, although
things are so crassly and stupidity
wrong, nObobdy seems to appreciate the
depth of the folly to which we have fall
len. G.. H.