The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1901.

Waikato Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1098, 14 November 1901, Page 2

The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1901.

The mail which reached us yesterday brought a full report of the speech delivered by Sir Redvers Buller at the Queen’s Westminsters luncheon. The cable has informed us of the removal of Sir Redvers Buller from the Aldershot command, which appears to have been brought about by public opinion pressing upon Sir W. St. John Brodrick, the allegation being that Sir Redvers was unfit for the position, and that his appointment was contrary to the policy laid down that each Army Division should be commanded in times of peace by the men who would lead them in war. General Buller spoke in most caustic language of the criticism he had been subjected to by the Press. We at this end of the world have felt and expressed very great sympathy with the General, as we felt that he had the hardest task of the campaign allotted to him, a task which gave him little chance of displaying great military capacity, a task which was only to be fulfilled by dogged perseverance and dauntless courage. Much has been made of the heliogram transmitted to Sir G. White after the failure of the first attack on the Boer garrison at Cnlenso. It is only common justice that Sir Redvers’ explanation should be given the fullest publicity. Itreads as follows: —

They attack me, and they say that I wrote a telegram in which I ordered Sir George White to give up Ladysmith, to destroy his books,'and so forth. I wrote a good many telegrams, and I wrote one telegram that admits partially of that description. With regard to this particular telegram I stand absolutely alone. It is I and nobody else, and, therefore, I have not the least objection at all in telling you about it. I attacked Colenso on December 15. 1 was unsuccessful ;it was a veiy trying day ; I was 36 hours at work ; I was 14 hours in the saddle. It was the hottest day we had the whole of the time I was out there, and I had rank bad luck, and I hope to show some day that if I had not had bad luck I had good enough men with me to get in, I attacked Colenso and I failed ; and, having failed, I had to consider the people in front of me iu Ladysmith. Ladysmith was held by Fir George White. I do no harm in repeating the report I made to the Government on him on the day Ladysmith was first closed up. 1 said I did not know him well, and that 1 had not seen very much of him, but that if I had to pick in the whole Army a man to whom I would entrust the defence of Ladysmith in its present position that man would have been Sir George White. X knew that horse - sickness was almost certain to become very prevalent in the Tugela Valley ; I knew that enteric fever was endemic, and was likely to become epidemic in the Tugela Valley at that time. 1 believed also that the Boers were engaged in putting dead horses into the water which the garrison was obliged to drink. I knew that the garrison would have trouble, and great trouble, with their sick. I did not know what supplies there were. I thought at that time I had officially in writing that the gairison could not be feil beyond the end of the year. I was wrong, but at that time I thought it and beileved it. The end of the year was 15 days off. The message I had to send to Sir George White was that I had attacked, that I had failed, that 1 could not possibly make another attempt for a month, and then I was certain I could not do it except by slow fighting, and not by rushing. That was the message I had to send, and I had to ask him certain questions. I wrote the telegram out, aud 1 read it through several limes, and I said : * It is a mean thing to send a telegram like that to a fellow like that. He will sit still to the end. What about his sick?’ I was in command of Natal, and it was my duty to give my subordinate some nss'stanc*, some lead, something that in the event of his determining to surrender he would be able to produce and say, ‘ Well, Sir Redvers Buller agreed.’ I, therefore, spatchcocked into the middle of that telegram a sentmce in which 1 suggested it would be necessary to surrender the garrison, what he should do when he surrendered, and how he should do i . I put it after one question he had to answer, and followed it with another question. 1 did not like to suggest to a man I believed to be a brave soldier that he should do this, that, or the other ; but I put in the sentence in order that if he found he was obliged to surrender it would be some sort of cover for him. In fact, what I felt at the time was that if surrender came I should be just as responsible for it as he was, and I did not mean to stand up and say it was all his ‘fault

After complaining of anonymous attacks made upon him in the celumns of The Times, Sir Redvers proceeded to state that his telegram to Sir George White had been published in a garbled state, and added : 'lt was a perfectly secret telegram. I challenge them to produce the telegram and say how they got it, and when they do that I will publish a certified copy of the telegram I sent and the public shall judge me. lam perfectly ready to be judged. Let it be understood that I make that challenge as a whole. I nay the whole thing must be published, because what they quote is only a part. They are not going to draw me by saying they have got a thing and then not producing it. They are to publish the telegram if they have got it and say how they got it, and then I will put my telegram down. The Times once quoted Napoleon to abuse its friends, and I will quote Kruger to defend myself. 1 am going to let the tortoise put its head out before I cut it off.’

The telegram may have been an improper one, but there can be no hesitation is accepting Sir Redvers’ statement as to his motives, and the} are certainly such as should acluaUj.a man of honour. He held supreme command, and very properly, without dictating to a subordinate general who alone was cognisant of the state of affairs in Ladysmith, generously shared with

him the responsibility if he should he compelled to surrender.