SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1902. METHUEN'S MISFORTUNE.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 89, 15 March 1902, Page 8

SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1902. METHUEN'S MISFORTUNE.

Outwitted, Wounded, and Captured. THE disaster which befel the British arms in South Africa last week cames with it no shade of discredit All that gallant men could do was done to avert defeat It simply tells the old stoiy of the supei lor wilmess of the enemy in planning a successful ambuscade, and striking home m overpowering strength at the veiy moment when the foice opposed to them is least prepaied for lesistance Lord Methuens column of 1200 men was moving in two parties. an hour apart, from Wyndberg to Lichtenburg when, on Friday morning, just after dawn Dc la Rey, with 1500 Boeis clad in khaki, and accompanied by a fifteen-pounder and a pompom burst upon them, and made an enveloping attack on three sides * * * Despite this sudden and furious onset and the teinble confusion produced by the stampeding of the mules attached to the waggons, the Bntish troops, under Lord Methven and Major Paris fought with chaiacteristic biaveiy and stubbornness Two officeis and thirty-nine men weie killed five officers and seventytwo men were wounded, while General Lord Methven himself was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and, among many others, taken prisonei It is the most serious reverse the Imperial forces have sustained foi a considerable tune but it bears with it no loss of prestige, and casts no reflection upon the gallantry of oui tioops It is merely the old story of Boer "slimness"' and British blundering into a snare • • * Foi Loid Methven himself, theie must be geneial sympathy New Zealand troopers who have fought nndei him and the colonial forces geneially have only feehngG of lespect and attachment for him He is a hard workei interests himself personally m the comforts of his men, shares their rations and their fatigues and has had more than his fair allowance of hard knocks and the rigours of war As for Magersfontein, there is Lord Roberts's recent statement m the Lords that it was "an almost impossible task ' which was set before Methven theic • • » So far as De la Rey is concerned the British beai him no grudge He was stiongly aveisc to wai, but. once the die was cast, he declared he would fight to the bitter end And he has proved to be the bravest most resourceful, and most humane of the Boer generals He was known to the colonial Tommies as 'the paison '' because he took to the field in a black frock coat, wore smoked glasses and carried a white parachute And, although he has managed to clothe his troops in British khaki— "the spoils of war" — he has up to da.te maintained his own costume • • • It is significant of the love entertamed for us on the Continent, that the news of the catastrophe was received in Paris with jubilation, and

m Bcilm with hunahs Just so But these Fieiuh and Geiman tianspoits of delight and the disastei itself will but seive to mtensih the deteimniation thioughout the Kinpneto make lcdoublcd exeitions to subdue the Boeis. and end the \\ ai New Zealand has done 111010 than hei shaie ahcady but the despatch of a Tenth Contingent is now on the tapis, and, sooth to say the mood of the colony is quite favourable to the undei taking So long as sacrifices are needed. New Zealand will not wait to be asked foi hoi contribution