THE TRIUMPH OF BOTHA

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2464, 18 May 1915, Page 5

THE TRIUMPH OF BOTHA

GERMAN TROOPS TO SEEK SAFETY (Rec. May 18, 1.20 p.m.) Copenhagen, May 17. The German troops in. &>utli-West Africa have been ordered to enter Angora (Portuguese territory) in order to avoid capture.

BOTHA'S TASK. 1 A GREAT UNDERTAKING. (By Anglo-South African.) The occupation of Windhoek by the Union of South Africa forces is another personal triumph for General Louis Botha, and appreciably brings the war in that region of the world towards a close. The campaign has entailed a prodigious amount of labour, labour of which few people have any conception. Kitchener's building of the desert railway and his advance into tho Sudan provide the nearest parallel to what the Union forces are now accomplishing, with the difference that they are crossing the German desert along two routes, and are building two railways instead of oiie; that they are pitted againstthe troops of a great European power ivell provided with modern weapons, and not against savages; that they have had to bring every man, every animal, every crumb of food for both, every piece of equipment, by sea from a distant "base (Cape Town), and that they have had to create practically three new ports, Luderitz, Walfi'h, and Swakop. As tie "Cape Times" points out, this complex enterprise has been in progress for months without tbe general public having tho faintest idea of what it entails. Everybody lias _ known that thero was a Union expedition partly in and partly on its way to the German province.

But the passage of this expedition— perhaps the largest yet furnished by an oversea Dominion for Imperial purposes —by land and water into the enemy's territory, the transportation of tens of thousands of men and horses over the Union railways, with batteries of artillery, and tons of equipment; the silent embarking of brigade after brigade, regiment after regiment; the. shipping of thousands of tons of beef and mutton, fiour and groceries, to say nothing of thonsands of tons of forage for the horses and tens of thousands of tons of sleepers, rails, locomotives, general rolling stock, and other material; the creation of machinery for the landing and distribution of men, animals, and munitions at Luderitz, Walfishj and Swakop; the construction of railway lines, and the maintenance, by rail, motor, and mule transport; the organising of medical and nursing staffs, the wholesale equipment, of base hospitals"; these and many other _ circumstances have, for the sake of military prudence, been a closed book to the public.

Botha's Military Organisation. The German prisoners have been greatly impressed with General Botha's military arrangements. While a number of captive officers and soldiers were being conveyed from Walfisch to Pietermaritzburg, via Cape Town, Simon's Bay, and.Durban, by the City of Athens, a. representative or the "Cape Times" took the opportunity of interviewing one of them. "How are your people off for food?' inquired the pressman. "Better off than you imagine. All of German South-West Africa is not the barren country it is generally supposed to be. You will not be able to starve us into submission, and I don't suppose you ever thought such a thing possible. You will have to beat us fairly and squarely in the field." "I hope we shall bo able to do so soon."

"There can be 110 doubt about that so far as South-West Africa is concerned. Do you know, ivo were all amazed when we saw your camps at Swakopnvund and Wnlfiscli Bay, At Swakopimmd 0110 of my .officers said to me 'This must bo the South African Aldersliot,' 'but. when we saw the camps at Walfiscli Baymiles of tents and thousands of soldiers ill khaki—wc bad to ask ourselves where all the British troops came from."

"But yon only saw a very few of the troops General Botha has at his disdosal."

"It is amazing; and if you can do in Europe what you are doing in South Africa the war there will end in six months."

"Wo are doing more in Europe. For every man that South Africa can put in the field Great Britain can put a hundred.''

"Von are a wonderful nation, I admit," en toe. reluctantly but none (be less emphatically from (lie Gorman prisoner, ''HHfl • HilHnltl! UspM.uf ivill Ltat to admit it, w&ets lis is ovejr,".