OLLA PODRIDA.

Te Aroha News, Volume XVI, Issue 222035, 11 January 1900, Page 3

OLLA PODRIDA.

■si [By Quiz.] ' jjf Oh! wad some power the gif tie gie us p' To see oursels as ithers see us! |slt wad frae mony a blunder free ’is, And foolish notion. BURNS. irst was said by the Xing the m-st learned 00l in Chidstendoin. To parody that spying, it might be said that John Bull is ihe bravest -fool in Christendom. KV He has a perfect genius for proving himself, in one and the same act, both :• -a lunatic and a he* o : he first qualifies Pfior Bedlam and then covers himseif

bvi v thus. Example, j war. In the fust p'ace, it was a piece of criminal folly to jjr undertake such a war, since the purpose of it was to bolster up the u..who is still free to his favourite p istimp of butchering defeuca'ess Ch'istians. Russia had proposed, —for it was as clear then as it is now —that the Turk should not be tolerated in the circ e of European nations —that the Turkish domin'on? should bo partitioned ; Egypt, which was ruled by the Khedive in the Sultan’s name, falliug to England’s share. ‘Oh no,’ said John, ° I can’t countenance interfer- • puce with the internal affau s of a foreign power, nor can I dream of taking territory, or allowing you to take territory, that belongs to another.’ Considering things as they are in Egypt to-day its funny. At the time of Crimean war, without J.B. might have had for the stealing. He fought to prevent such a c >nsummation! Since then he has stolen it. He Ibughfc to get it, he has fought to keep it, and he has gained the ill-will of Europe. In the second place, the organisation of the Crimean campaign was a monument of fatuous folly c Our men were half-naked and halfl:~!?,rved, whilst ship loads of food and Pithing were spoiling. A cargo of p Texans for Tommy Atkins’ right foot was dispatched to one pori, whilst those for rhe left found their way to another, tjnground coffee was sent for Tommy’s use ; the coffee-mills wore In the third place, the was cranky; which of c >urse was to be expected when titled nobodieß were pitch forked into com rnand. 'Somebody blundered one dav, as usual, and all the world wondered

at the Balaclava chavge ; the maddest, the most m >gmfieient exploit in military annals. Iq the last place, the final victory was worthless. - Russia has siuco done a go >d many things that the war was intended to pi-evjuxt- SliS has not, by the wav. g t Constantinople, yet," wliils* J.B. has got Egypt. The said J. 8., however, his made an enemy he might have gained a friend. the Tra isvaal war, John, true to his instincts, is playing the man fc. and plaving the fool. The men who are fighting hi 3 battles to-day are no loss brave than those who hurled back Napoleon’s veterans. He can still find the the generals—for a Balaclava cha"ge- And he* can bungle as well as ever. He has had a few brushes with the Boers already, -which should have taught him that in bi’oken country, where they can shoot from behind boulders, they have no r~ equals. He knows that a small force of determined men, choosing its own ground, having its communications absolutely safe;"' figl ting among friends, can hold at bay a large force which is compelled to fight where the wenemy chooses, which at every step sufficient men to guard of retreat, and which finds ~^ se lf surrounded by a hostile population. And knowing all this, be fondly imagined that the Boers were to be overcome by a force which, weakened as it advanced by the detachment of troops to hold the rear, V* was actually outnumbered. Now the old gentleman appears to be aware tba* - he made a mistake. He is hurrying reinforcements to the front as fast hr’ he can, and calling on the familv for more he’p. Let us hope that before the old fool hits again, he’ll be ready to hit, and hit hard. One of the war correspondents said , that 250,000 men would he required. that the Boers have 50,000 that,would he an allowance of five to one. The estimate is perhaps too much on the side of prudence. Allowing for the disadvantages under which they fight, four Britishers >*opght to be good for one Boer. ■■ '■ *- * #

;< If the man that works the cable tells the truth, John B. has been guilty of other blunders. BuUer’s movements have been retarded by lack of transport. Napoleon’B dictum that an army inarches upon its stomach is as true in South Africa as anywhere else. Not only must the army be fed ; the guns also require sustenanoe. And they are ' no these same guns, since for they vomit, something more than\ own weight of lead. Clearly, an army cannot march faster its powder-carts and commisariat waggons. Yet again, though Lord Wolsey denies it, the cable man says that our artillery is inferior in range k to that of the Boers. If this is cor- • rect, the article * made in Germany’ is not always to be sneezed at, and we >£nay thank our stars that we haven’t to meet Germany in battle array on .Jand. The battle of Manilla showed might and did happen to the armed with inferior artillery. Ir

will be remembere 1 that the Yankees adopted the subtle stratagem of keeping out of range of the Spanish guns and battered the opposing ships as if they had been targets. After a time they tired of the game and hauled off for breakfast. Later on, when they had recovered from the tired feeling, they went in again and finished off the business on full stomachs.

Every now a;ud again we read of a British reverse clearly the result of somebody’s blilnder. Outside Ladysmith, a British foi ce calmly took up an isol-.ted position, which the Boers promptly, surrounded, thus trapping some hundreds of prisoners with next to no trouble to themselves. The explanation of the disaster given by the authorities was that the mules had taken charge and stampeded with the ammunition. It has never been made quite clear when the mules first to -k charge. In Northern Cape C >lony, General Gatacre, apparently without tiie slightest knnwl. dg p of the whereabouts of his enemy, allowed guides, who likely enough were Boer agents, fn lead him into an ambush, from

h'ch, after severe losses, lie was able ;o retreat only by the pluck of his men. One of Buffer's officers rushed a battery into such a position that the Boers were able to pick off the horses and many of the gunners. Result, ten guns had to be abandoned. At Magersfontein, Lord Methuen appears to have disregarded the military commonplace tha f , before stiong «n 1 ranchmen? s. can be carried by assault, the garrison must be demoralised by artillery fire, Further, ho would a] p'ar to have been guilty of assaulting an enemy greatly superior to himself in numbers, and securely pos ed in an impregnable position. Let us hope that he has learned, liis lesson,