The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1900. THE WAR PUZZLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 81, 6 April 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1900. THE WAR PUZZLE.

The meagre and fragmentary items of news that the cable censor condescends to allow to be transmitted convey but very little information as to the general plan of the present war operations. No sooner has one set of cables been put together and a theory formed thereon when another little batch comes along like a lyddite shell and utterly upsets every calculation, after which a fresh start is made on the new message, but only in its turn to meet a similar fate to that of its predecessor. The military " experts " attached to the staff' of some of ®ur contemporaries make desperate attempts to piece together these odd and awkward fragments, but in spite of a generous use of the preposition " if" their efforts meet with very sorry success. The general public refuse to be sntisfied with the platitudes and technicalities of these assiduous apologists, and they may indulge in their pet phrases to further orders for all the attention that is likely to be paid them. In a leading article on this question a Hawke's Bay contemporary deals with it as follows : Taking the scattered f. agments of cable we rec ive as a whole it is often very difficult to arrive at the remotest idea, regarding the general state of affairs. Something which appears inexplicable at the time is explained by an apparently chance statement a week or a month later. Our news is like the meagre evidence upon which ai jury is asked to decide. Inference is made from the occurrence of certain facts. That one event followed another is certain evidence that it was a consequence of the first, and the connection between the two is thus supplied by the consideration that certain things must have occurred or the latter event could not have taken place as a result of the preceding one. The interpretation of our cabled news from S utli Africa would certainly be the finest twining for a student in jurisprudence. The censor frequently presents us with some most intricate problems to elucidate, and he intermingles what did happen with what did not happen so cunningly that the truth is often times regarded as preposterous, and the untrue regarded as most piohalile because it is founded upon expectation. Apparently just at the present Lord Roberts is i halting, and the future plan of campaign is seemingly yet undecided upon. It appears as though the Com-mander-in-Chief was inventing plans, and as quickly revoking them. Lord Methuen, for instance, was stationed ivith a large force at Warrenton, on the banks of the Vaal. Up to a late date he w -s engaged with the arrangement of transport for future operations, which led to the belief that the railway iine was to be abandoned, and a direct invasion of the Transvaal contemplated with the view of automatically ; eheving Jlafekingand threatening thr; advanced Boer lines in the Free Stat ■. Now, however, General Methuen's forces have been totalled to Kimberley. Probably that move was necessary owing to the fa t that the Boer forces in Griqualand threatened to outIhnk him, as we have been informed that iliey were in strong fm-co at (iriqua Town, also that an isolated detachment of the enemy threatened the railway line near Jacobsdal. But ".here are certain indications that Lord Robert:! is not unwilling that the Boers}, should proceed further south, even that',

he is inviting them to the belief that they will not meet with overwhelming opposition in doing so. General French's withdrawal from Ladybrand, where he was iiua strong imposition, is a case in point, niid; in Oonfcert with Lord Methuen's retirement to Kimborley. is indicative of some hidden intention on the part of Lord Roberts. These apparently erratic movements are doubtless all part of a well-arranged plan to keep the Boers on the move and prevent them concentrating pending full preparations being made for aflnal and decisive advance from ail quarters at once.