THURSDAY. DEC. 21, 1899. THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 88, 21 December 1899, Page 2

THURSDAY. DEC. 21, 1899.

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER.

THE p'vsent t ia a time if deep •anxiety to the leaders ot Gnat Brut in, lor away in South Africa the pi 1 -sti^f of our army is receiving a shock little expected fiom a comparatively aimill stare. ' The British ha*.e nosy for so long been accustomed to consider their army and navy invincible, that to suggest the possibility of defeat — especially at the hands of mere farmers well educated in the use of a rifle — was merely to court ridicule. Yi j t within the last few ye ird we have seen a nation of foity million Japanese prevail over fourhundred million Chinese in a very short space of time, and in Cuba the Spaniards, with 20,000 men inured to fighting after a three years' campaign, were beaten by lets than 3 ),0 '0 Americans, and again in the Philipines the rebels have kept the American forces at bay for the last fifteen months or more, and not long since the trained Italian foices were beaten by King Menelek of Abyssinia and hi& savage tribes. Now the Boers have not only captured Biitish troops but they have driven the army from the Transvaal borders at Nicholsons Neb, back and back into the centre of Natal. When it ia rememhered that the Boers have a# stroiig a force in the field as the British, that they are all tnoaffted and can escape capture, that they aie in country that they know well, that they never need to act except on. the defensive", that their artillery is greatly superior, to ours, and that they are fired by enthusiasm engen lered by the feeling that it is a la9t stand for their liberty, it caii haidly be a matter for astonishment that the attacking party has suffered sev r^ losses. They are fighting an up-hill g<wnt* in more ways than one> and it is now sufficiently clear tliat the^ Majuba Hill incident was not an accidental occurrence after .all. No wonder -that a thrill of patriotic zeal for thy honour of the^ empire has spread like lightning* tiuroughout ito.vast dominion*.

.Nations hold their own and r ire protected by virtue of respect due to -their fighting abilities.- Let "England lose her reputation for success in warfare, then indeed has appeared the dawn of a new era, the 'decadence «f British power, perhaps the ultimate dismemberment of the Empire For this reason, if for, no other, the war in the' Transvaal must be carried to a satisfactory termination. It b .■Titreinely unfortunate that British blood should have to be poured oat that our countryman might live in the Transvaal, but -it isnow too lafe to -look back. It i< better that the Boers should be thoroughly routed, than that shelter uatastrophe3 in the futuie should be invited by the lowered piesfige of British arms. Tlu--defeats which our 'generals have suffered, severe though they hay. been, and usually rendered less disastrous by judicious retreats, have reached as a rule 7 pet cent, killed. At Waterloo, the French lost 34 per cent., at Sedan, 31 petcent. At the battle of Jena, when the French were victorious^ over the Prussians, the latter lost 39 per cant. It cannot be said that the recent encounters can I rank as -great trials of strength | such as the battles named, still j they are serious, numerically, as I well aR by their indirect effects, i when we remember thct at the | battle of Alma the" losses were only 8 per cent. In this fight, ; the opening on* of the Crimean War, the "allies wailed the stream amidst a shower of ballets but finally defeated the Russian army. The Boer campaign up to the prespnt -has not been mai- ' vellously disastrous, but we cannot afford to overlook its serious significance. The rising of the Dutch in South Africa, with the possibility of disaffected native ttibes joining in and assisting tboni, presents simply an appalling picture, and would require an herculean effort on the part of the Empire to overcome. The conquest of the Soudan, by the slow and grim determination of Lord JCitchener, akled lay thousands of blacks, little better than slaves, and by the formation ot the Soudan Military Railway, is nothing compared with the struggle for bupreinacy that might have yet to be faced in South Africa. Reckless and brave as the Mah.li's followers wert% they had not the advantage ot modern "artilleuy, such as the fdpe Dutch or tlvo Transvaal can command, and^moreover use with magnificent effect. The present juncture is one for us to seek what light we can from othei sources, a'nd the consideration of a paper by the President of the Uhenseum of Madrid on the late Spanish War, comes as a small source of comfort to loyal British people. Senor Ecbeg.iiay recently leotuied on the snbject — "In what cloeg the stiength of | nations consist ?" In this lecture he reviewed the humiliation of Spain by America, and his reflections tend to show that the nations of commerce are not likely to lose their military prestige. As a matter of fact the beginning of social life, the b.iiHhng of men together for particular purposes, and the sinking of their individual differences, ih essentially for self-prutecti^u — in other words the dawn of civilisation is essentially military — it is for fighting purposes. Sine, the middle of the 18th century, however, industrial progress has been so great, so rapid in Kng land as to overfehadow its military side, and it has been otten asked if the nation of shopkeepers tould maintain its rank in military circles. Senor Echeg-^ray does not approach the subject from that standpoint," but the burden of his address essentially is that Spain inheriting military instincts always trusted to its histoiic valour and pride, never dteaming of defeat, while it neglected its commercial activities, and thai great resource in time of trouble, the almighty dollar. J Spain wasmuch better prepared with land forces than America, yet she, succumbed. "We Spaniards have not k lown how to appreciate the difEeieMce of strength between our country and the United States. We asked for more ships, more soklierj, and for moie batteries, and we could not see that what we lacked -was more dollars. Those our enemy possessed i n abundance." Money, with unanimity auiong the nation, might have iaved' .Spain the loss of her colonies, but she ha*d neither. So far as Britain i» concerned, "she is essentially, commereial,she is extremely wealthy, and up to th' 6 present fciihe, at home and abroad, a unaniniiouß desire foil the faaceessful, issufe of this- war seerns;to.^xist. J "The European nations -seeni " to be quiet, n^akidg^nd move, and if there ba'iao,.^re»t accession of

strength on the 'pxh -of those against her, Britain ultimately come oat ""triumphant.. There are those who believe that our country might 'well h t ive left' the Transvaal to the 'Boers,-but that having once taken up arms, to retreat and withdraw, would only Court European complicalions on a huge scale iff the not too "distant future.