The Irish standard., 1903-01-17
BLAKE ON THE BOERS.
An Address by the Commander Of the
Irish Brigade.

the irish Brigade i'll the BOer war, q
graduate Of West Point Of the class of
$780, and a soldier who has earned a
paigns against the Indians in the early
SOS, gave an eloquent address on his
experiences in the Boer war, before an
audience that filled Hibernian Hall,
Worcester, Mass, on Jan. 4.
Colonel Blake was warmly greeted
when he arose to speak, and thanked
the audience He said he was not
much at speaking, and hardly clever
at anything other than hunting trou.
bic, and at various times in his lite
he bumped up against it good and
hard. Ills address in part follows:
''The great struggle for independence
waged against England by the Beers
began in Rhodesia, a country once
governed by a Zulu chief, who was
friendly to all white men. Cecil
Rhodes entered that country with Il.
band Of marauders, and, in addition to
reducing the land to absolute poverty,
they killed the chief. A chartered
company was formed to develop the
country, but the plans of Rhodes and
others failed, and many persons were
swindled out of their money.
Rhodes, not wishing to lose, formu-
lated plan to get possession of the
Rand gold fields, the richest in the
world. The jameson raid was organ
lied to get England into trouble, but
the raid failed, and Rhodes says we
must look to constitutional laws. All
papers in the country, with the eXcep-
ton of two. were owned by Rhodes
and the English people, and the only
authentic news we could get about the
doings of Rhodes was from the Lon
don Times.
''The English Government gradua,.S
made way for the war and had $4,000
troops in Natal, although under the en-
listing treaty they could have but 5000
The Dutch had absolutely no military
organization other than the artillery
corps which had for equipment, count
ing that ruled by the Free State, about
30 cannon and 104 Maxms of all kinds
and types. This was the state of the
Boer army ten days before the war be-
gan. When the men were called into
the field they came with their little
piece of dried meat tied on one side
Of the horses saddle they rode and a
little spare quantity of meal tied to the
other side. a certain number of men
are under veldt cornet, but they rode
Tor themselves, in no formation but Mt
the given order they assembled OH the
border.
"rhe war began when Gen. ,JOubert
ordered thcEnglish to take their troops
out of the country. The order was in
the form of an ultimatum. On Oct. 10
war really started. and ~ Roer sol
dicrs or farmers, as you call them, cap
turcd 200 members of the Eighteenth
HuSsars. The Hussars thought they
| would surely he killed when they
were first captured, but later So of
those men pHitiOncd me for permission
to join our army, but Gen. Joubert
did not think it right.
at Dundee the sport really began,
to my mind, and it was sport. The
country was shroudcd i'm darkness, and
Gen. Lucas Meyer, who was on the
east side of the Roer forces, had been
beaten back and later Gen. Penn Sy.
mons was killed.
at was at Dundee that witnessed
for the first time what is called true
English steel The lancers, with their
pig stickcrs. showed up ut that battle,
and we watched them from behind II
kopic ride along and stick their lanccs
into the poor dying and wounded 30.
crs as they lay Oh the field of battle
One man 1 know. and who Is still
alive. was proddcd.
cat Ladysmith, Gen. White had Sc
cannon and occupied all but one of the
hills around the city. Gen. DeWet
with force of 200 men captured $40
English soldiers. On the left we Kill
led about 200 and captured 2 cannons.
The English fled precipitately before
us. Many Of the English soldiers
threw away their weapons and their
other equipment, and we Went out in
to the veldt and collected that cold
English steel, as it was proven in that
war it was only good for killing of
the wounded
cat Colenso we had 5000 men ex.
tending a distance of 80 miles, and
Gen. Butler ON the other side of the
Tugela had 10000 men. He advanced
In bnttle attack with three distinct
lines. Butler was given severe beat
ing and later tried to move his guns
to point of vantage by hiding them
behind an ambulance train.
"N1ajor Pretorius, Of the Boer artil
lery, the greatest artillerist the worlt
has ever known. discovered the guns
and by clever use of the men at hi
disposal completely routed the force
The English fought hard to regain tn,
guns, and it was ut this point that tn
son of Lord Roberts, brave fellow
lost his life trying to recapture tn,
guns.
''The battle of Spion Kop was Tough
short time afterward. The Boer