The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-01-19
nave lost their courage. and nerve and

have lost their courage and nerve and
are well nigh persuaded that an army
of over 100000 veterans, in complete
possession Of the two Dutch states,
has been held up by scattered bands
of raiders and that Cape Town is only
protected by the guns of the fleet from
capture by Hertzog With his 700 fol-
lowers and pair of Maxims. Indeed,
there are unmistakable signs that the
English people, like their own army in
the field, have grown stale. Like the
soldiers, they are weary of a war in
which there is neither prestige nor ad-
vantage, and are overstrained by the
prolonged period of nervous tension. -
Another correspondent, A. ]. Wilson,
writes in the same lugubrious strain to
another Anglo-American sheet, the
New York Times, and says South Afri-
ca is a specter to the English people.
He candidly says:
'South Africa haunts us still with
growing horror and dread. The veil
has fallen between us and that coun-
try, thanks to the military press cen
sorship and the alarming reticence of
Lord Kitchener. We try to assure our
selves that the Cape Dutch will not rise
that the skirmishes charity half report
ed mean British victories, and that the
enemy is daily becoming more desti-
tute and less willing to continue the
conflict. Those Rhodes-Beit admins
traitors sent up to the Orange Free
State and Transvaal to represent the
British civil government have seem
ingly concocted sham appeals for peace
just as they formerly concocted lying
appeals for protection, and we try to
believe, feeling all the time that the
situation grows steadily worse"
a delegation of Africanders is now
on it's way from Cape Colony to Lon
IRISH-3O 80 so SKOON %
don to ask the British authorities to
stop the war and recognize the indie
pendence of the Beers. If the British
jingoes turn a deaf ear to the envoys
and "spurn them with contempt from
the foot of the throne" the Dutch set
tiers of Cape Colony will revolt and
cast their lot with their brethren be-
yond the Vaal, who have fought so
bravely and successfully against the
British Invaders.
1t is amusing to read in the English
papers how the Beers are growing nu-
merically stronger every time they
whip the British. They give absurd
estimates of the strength of the Beers
now in the field, and say Botha has
5000, Delarey 1000, De Wet 5000, be-
sides 5000 in Griqualand, 5000 in Cape
Colony and 1000 scattered here and
there among the kops and spruits. The
fact is that there are not more than
$4,000 Beers altogether bearing arms,
but they are enough to meet the 2OO,-
600 sicllly, dispirited Britishers under
Kitchener, many Of whom are doing
guard duty on the railroad from Cape
Town to Johannesburg, which is LOIS
miles long.
Every day we read Of British con-
voys being captured by the Beers and
of the guards being killed, wounded
and missing. The Beers seem to have
the best of it, according to British re-
ports. They are now said to be with
so miles of Cape Town, and the Eng
lish colony is the scene of their irresis-
tible raids. If they succeed in cutting
the lines Of communication with the
British garrisons they will eventually
starve the soldiers of the queen.