December 2, 1899.] -
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CHINÄ OVERLAND TRADE REPORT,{"
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that claims the first attention of the public. are likely to contribute to its success, as the are reckoned up they will come The sick, wounded, and disabled are being fact of the Boers allowing themselves to be much as those of the British is doubt- attended to in the meantime, and if further | locked in at Colesburg seems to show that ful, for in a case like this it is to be
pre provision is required for them hereafter they have been taken by surprise. A tele- sumed that the loss of the attacking party no doubt it will be forthcoming. The gram of the 21st instant stated that General would be somewhat grenter than that of the ® sense of the meeting held on Monday GATAORE had been sent to East London to defenders, if, as seems to have been the case, war” entirely “in favour of the money check a disloyal agitation and, in another the latter were able to withdraw in faiz order. now about to be raised in Hongkong telegram of the same date, that his division When the war commenced we expressed the being devoted to the support of the was assembling at Queenstown, a town some opinion that it would be short and Gharp. women and children. The decision arrived eighty wiles up the railway. From the Sharp it certainly has been, so far as it has at by the Committee will therefore be telegrama published to-day it appears that he gone; short, unfortunately, it does, not now approved by the community. It will also has got up into the neighbourhood of Coles appear likely to be. The Boer strength is be observed from the Lord Mayor's letterburg, and that his mission to check a dis- vastly greater than was supposed, even by and the enclosed letter from the Duke of loyal agitation at East London was a mere the most competent judges, and it is pasing CAMBRIDGE that the old Patriotie- Fund blind. Of General FRENOH's movements strange that in the case of a country with will make itself responsible for the widows, we have had no information except that he nearly half the population British our in- orphans, and other dependents of the left Ladysmith by the last train before telligence department should have been so officers and men who lose their lives in the investment and was to command the uninformed regarding the enemy's artil- the war, and the Commissioners of that cavalry at Capetown. We have been❘lery. And not only are the Boers in pos- Fund and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families' told, however, that a strong concentration session of a maginficent armament, but they Association will no doubt work hand in had been formed at De Aar, and presum- know how to use it, and they are, moreover, hand in the matter. The Duke of CAM- ably General FRENCH proceeded there endowed with such tenacity of purpose as BRIDGE's remarks on the administration of Nauwpoort, an important railway junct renders their surrender improbable until the Patriotic Fund are of special interest and strategical position south of Colesbu they are reduced to the last gasp. But in view of General Gascoigne's speech at news of the evacuation of which was given whatever the cost, we are in for "a fight: Monday's meeting,
in a telegram of the 6th, was re-occupied to a finish," and have to see it through. sometime before the 22nd. Turning to Lord METHUEN's division, great mystery was observed concerning its earlier move ments. In a telegram of the 12th we were told that the division was moving, and was
THE BRITISH PLAN OF CAMPAIGN,
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It is not of much practical utility at this time of day discussing the justification of the war; there can be but few Britishers now, we think, who will not acknowledge that it was not only justifiable, but necess ary. Yet as recently as the 28th October via Colenso, and that the journey would we find Mr. BRYN ROBERTS, M.P., writing occupy seventeen days. Next we were told to the Times defending his vote in the House on the 16th that it was probable General of Commons against the war supply on the MATHUEN was Dot going to Natal, but ground that the result of a refusal of the would command a column to be formed at | supply would be "an immediate commu the Orange River Station to relieve Kim-"nication to President KRUGER frankly berley. On the 19th we were told he was advancing with a brigade of Guards from the Orange River (evidently meaning Orange River Station) to the relief of Kim- berley, and on the 20th that the whole of the first division was with him and also that he was taking a big railway repairing staff, but even then some doubt appears to have been entertained as to his real objective. That is now no longer in doubt and we shall not have to wait much longer for the news that the gallant garrison of Kimberley has received its needed relief. Whether the column will then proceed to the relief of M teking or, leaving that garrison to its fate, will proceed to effect a junction with Generals ĜATACRE and FRENCH at Bloem fontein, remains to be seen. However that may be, it seems not unlikely that the pre- diction that Bloemfontein would be in the hands of the British before Christmas may be realised.
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accepting his offer of August 19, an im "mediate armistice, no further shedding of "blood either Boer or British, and the con- "clusion of a peace as truly honourable" to "this country as was, in my mind, the pesos "concluded by Mr. GLADSTONE after:" " Majuba Hill.' But was the peace con" clude by Mr. GLADSTONE honourable. Magnanimous no doubt it was, but it rested" ou à grave error of judgment, for which" we are now paying the price. Had the inte been fought out in 1884 it would have cost not a tithe of the lives either Bobr or British_that must now be sacrificed. Af to Mr.RRYN ROBERTS's proposal, it amounts, as the Times puts it, to this, that the Gov. ernment of the QUEEN ought to bave been compelled in this way by the action" of "Her loyal Commons to sue for peace to President KRUGER after he had ordered her to with draw her troops from portions of her own' territory. As to the necessity for the war we may also quote the Times. "To what end "has the Transvaal been applying the
(Daily Press 25th November) To-day's telegrams give us some inkling of the British plan of campaign, which hither-evidently intended to proceed to Ladysmith to has been kept discreetly secret. General BULLER before leaving England telegraph ed instructions to General. WHITE not to attempt to advance into Transvaal territory from Ladysmith, and it is not unlikely that it was part of his plan to attract an attack by the Boers in that direction while arrang ing an invasion of the enemy's territory from the other side. It will probably not be long now before the Boers in Natal are satisfactorily disposed of, and by that time they may be in a position to endorse the opinion expressed in our columns a few weaks ago by a military correspondent to the effect that they have committed a great strategieal error in coming so far south For the moment the chief interest of the cam- paign has shifted from the east to the southern and western frontiers of the Orange Free State. To-day's telegrams tell us that the Boers at Colesburg are hemmed in by Generals FRENCH and GATACER, also that General METHUEN's division has reached Wittsputs and that a battle is imminent at Belmont. Colesburg is a town in the North of Cape Culpay from which the British forces were with drawn some time ago. Bel- mont is a station on the railway some sixty miles south of Kimberley, and Wittsputs which Lord METHUEN us reached, is an- other station somaten wiles south of Bel- mont and fifteen miles north of Orange River Station. We take it that on both the south" "nud: west the British are The telegram from our London correspon- now assuming the offensive. A recapitu dent published in to-day's issue informs us by the nature of things could havə büt Intion of 3
some of the principal tele- that Lord METHUEN'S division has had ten 'one object. It was directed against us, grams may be found useful in forming heurs of the bardest fighting in the annals "And against us alone. How effective. an estimate of the position. A telegram of of the British army and that eight thou- "the military strength of the Transvaal the 31st October informed us that General sand Boers were dislodged from their pori- "had become has been shown 'only too which she BULLER had arrived at Capetown, and six tion: The next telegram will no doubt clearly by the way in
has been able to take the offensive days duter we were informed that he bad bring us the list of casualties, and it is to be ordered the withdrawal of the garrisons at feared, it is certain indeed, that it will be a "against_this country on both her from. various points, including Nauwpoort, peud- | long one and will plunge many families into "tiers. Do the people who declare that we ing the urrival of reinforcements. There mourning. The victory is a notable one "have been over-hasty and who dwell upon there was an interval of ten days durand brings the relief of Kimberley very “the beauties of patienes think we ought to “have waited until Mr. Kavors had spent ing which no mention was made of the Com- close. Its effect, however, must not be er- mander-in-Chief, and then we were told aggerated. The wording of the telegram" further millions upon his artillery, "had that his whereabouts were secret, but it was leads as to suppose that the Boer army, "hired more mercenaries, and had_cons- believed that he had gone to the north of though dislodged from its position," was **tructed fresh_systems of forta." Weare Cape Colony to decide finally on the plan neither annihilated nor captured, and, with told that the war will leave a legacy of We do not believe it, . When, of campaign. That plan has now been ar- the necessary deduction for casualties, it will batred.
anged and is being put into execution, and still be available to oppose the British ad- the equality of both white peoples has been the secrecy which has attended its inception | vance. The Boer casualties: would no established under the suprémincy, sad the preliminary movements of the troops doubt be heavy, but whether when they | Crown they will learn to respect, if
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THE WAR: ITS PRUGRESS AND ITS JUSTIFICATION,
(Daily Press, 1st December.)
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riches she has extracted from the Ult- "landers? For years she has been openly “creating a great military power ́ ́urmed to "the teeth ncross our borders. That power
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