9th March, Mr. J. Lawrence has written admirable letter which appears in a recent issue of the Duily Telegraph in which he compares our operations in South Of th similar opera tions by other Powers in late years. "One is tempted," he say how Great Britain camp other Great Powers in the first stages of their campaigns since, say, the last great war in 1870. Adversity often seems to be borne more cheerfully when it is experienced by others equally with ourselves." This was written, of course, before the great change in the fortunes of the war which followed the arrival on_ the scene of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, Beginning with the war of 1870, Mr. Lawrence shows that the G mans went into tha ruled with the, needle-gun, which was entirely xd by the French ehasxeput.
a collection of papers," he says, "which the late Sir Joseph Whitworth (the gun-maker) me in 1884, I find him saying in 1870 that ngo of the s 1,800 paces and that of the needle-gun 600 to 700 paces, and thus, "the Germans in alt thei ges had to traverse 1,200 paces before their aim could be used to some purpose. Yet no one heard of demands for Moltke or Bismarck to be gibbeted. However good the German artillery was in 1870, it is even in that arm to-day admittedly inferior to the French."
turn to the Russian war with turkey in 1877, and re-read the history of Plevna and the whole campaign, we shall find that the Russians cannot throw any stones at us. They too were fighting a con-ruinous foe, and we have to send nearly everything to the other end of the world. The Daily News correspondent, one of the best authorities of the day, summed up the whole ign by saying: "'The Russians misconceived the magnitude ud to make matters worse, Generals were notonously incompetent "Perhaps Austria's campaign 1877-78," Mr. Lawrence -continues, "in attempting to suppress the revolt in Bosnia and Her with our task in the Transvaal than the wars of 1870 and 1877. Withi a modern and reorganised army 0 300,000 men (war footing) in 187, they took a year and eight months to succeed. Instead of an occupa tion needing only 20,000 men, they ultimately had "to mobilise about 250,000 men, before peace was made." Northern Natal, where Buller has been operating, is just as. moun-famous as Be and while th frontier of the ter only 190 niles from Ladysmith is a month's by sea and rail from London.
us had no Uith Jing in one and dynamite mon-vhich to buy modern and hire European office nor had they eighteen unhindered preparati ing. Contrast th paign of twenty months with our! three months over the Transvaal War, mainly spent not in fighting, but in shipping men and_ supplies, collected from all p: of the world, 7,000 miles."
Lawrence goes on to say thai it is not necessary to recall how the war opera ons of friendly coun: tries like Ital y and Greece have fared Filipino:
the we than the Ame-could be up-toko appli The Filipinos, says Mr. Lawrence, have neither rail:
money, nor skilled foreign' mer-to aid them, as the Boers But they are helped, asthe by the natural difficulties country and their familiarity And x0, "though the na i fought on May the Ist, L895—twenty the long struggle still lingers, with nearly 80,000 American troops in the field. All this proves," says Mr. Law-renee, count are pretty mu time of sudden This one respect, is even necess more dificult and slower than thi campaigns alluded to because of the transport. It is not alone on the or in South Africa, that this felt. During the week before last Woolwich Arsenal dispatched fifty two special trains of war material, and waggons could not be obtained from the tail companies quick enough or suitable enough to carry supplies from other places besides Woolwich to ports of shipment. In South Africa the railway go, weighed over 3 tons, which would need over thirty trains on the rally Durban, of twe waggons carrying four not an in a country gradients, sharp curve: rolling -stock are the rule and not the exception." The enforced s render of General Cronje show the difficulties: of transport are not confined to the British side.
Mr. Lawrence goes on to warn critics of our operations in South Africa not to lose all sense of per-ive. We should not exaggera nor underestimate them, The Hours have not been so very successful, even with the advantage of first blood. "Their career of invasion has been checked and their army, as a French strategist: points out, has been broken into sections, rendering them liable to defeat, sooner or later." This prophecy seems to in the way of early fulfilment. Mr. ites very sensibly in conclusion on the subject of the re-forma for which everybody is calling.
"The War Office sy ing more than individuals, status of the artillery and scientific andies inthe Army, and the eng-neering branch of the Navy, should be more liberally recognised; and not be denied any longer a full share of initiative Some relaxation of the checks and control exercised by Parliament and the Treasury may have to be introduced. You cannot make *}old-type machinery of Wellington's do modern work and in modern No head of a private en-establishment could keep up-to-date or live for one ar if he were trammelled as the tific branches of the Army and Navy are with obsolete regulations and" traditions, and possibly pr judi We must. therefore policy for the moment of 'Fight fi st and talk after.'
When we win, then we can go to work and rip the War Office methods to pieces."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.