Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1916-10-21 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

GUERILLA WARFARE.  There are several instances in history of a guerilla warfare being finally crowned with success. Among the most remarkable was the spirited resistance made by the Spaniards to the French in 1808-12. The armies of Napoleon had easily overrun the Peninsula, and had the Conqueror been content with the real sovereignty of Spain and allowed the nominal authority to lest with a King of Spanish blood all might have been well. The deposition of the Spanish King, however, roused the whole nation to the point of fury. Political and personal differences were all forgotten. The nation rose as one man and began a guerilla warfare, which proved the ruin of Napoleon. There was no organised military resistance to the French , Army, but every Spaniard became a hunter, with ' Frenchmen for his game. The French garrisons were harassed day and night; a French column on the march was in the midst of a constant fusilade. Outposts were iittacked, pickets were murdered, a French sentinel at the door of a palace was found dead with a dozen knife wounds in his body, and not a trace left of the murderers. No Frenchman IA as safe anywhere or under any circumstances in Spain, for the dagger of the assassin was ever drawn. Napoleon had another ,experience of guerilla warfare, which proved quite as disastrous as that in Spain. So long as the Conqueror was everywhere victorious and apparently irresistible, Germany was quiet under his rule. But when the retreat from Moscow broke the charm and showed that it was possible to withstand the man of Austerlitz, Germany became restive. Hardly had the French columns, shattered and broken, retired across the Russian frontier than there begon in Germany a popular uprising which took the form of guerilla warfare. Throughout the entire country the popular enthusiasm for fatherland and freedom flamed high. With pitchforks, axes, scythes fastened to poles, rude and antiquated firearms, the people assembled, under leaders of their own choice. to fight and expel the hated French. History does not record another instance of a popular uprising more unanimous than that of the German peasantry in 1813, or more successful. The Swiss war for independence was guerilla_ war. It was not waged on horseback. The guerillas of the Swiss mountains did not ride in pursuit of their enemies, for the nature of the country precludes the use of horses. But no guerilla warfare conducted by horsemen on the tropical plains was ever fiercer or more relentless than that carried on by the Swiss against the Austrians. Critical scholars tell us that William Tell was a mythical character, that no such person ever lived, but the mythical theory is not a safe one to advocate in Switzerland. Every man in the little army which • won the brilliant victory at Sempach was a William , Tell. The military spirit encouraged by the guerilla wars that for hundreds of years Switzerland waged almost constantly against one or another neighbour became so strong that the Swiss, like the Cossacks, became known all over Europe as professional soldiers. Since the war by which Napoleon was beaten, the Spanish have had several experiences of guerilla warfare on their own territory, the most notable Of which were the two Basque rebellions. The Basques are the Swiss of Spain. They have neve? been conquered by the Spaniards, nor anyone else, and to the present day they pay not one penny of taxes except suclii as are assessed by their own provincial governments. But no better illustration of the effectiveness of the guerilla against the regular can be found in history than was exhibited by the war which ended in the independence of Cuba. Marion was the De Wet of the American revolution. De Wet but repeatM the operations which gave such annoyance to the Federal army during the civil war when Wheeler and Forrest played the part of hounds and Federal posts and pickets were their game.