NEWS, VIEWS AND NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 295, 13 December 1899, Page 5

NEWS, VIEWS AND NOTES.

(VIA ENGLAND.)

(From Our London Correspondent.)

BRITISH REVERSES

HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED.

LONDON, November 3, 1899

• To resume the diary of the war as it affects London, we spent a terribly anxious three days on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, awaiting news from Ladysmith. The sparsity of the press cables clearly indicated the Censor was at work, and on Monday experts affirmed salient facts were being held back. Tuesday morning' brought the news of Sir George White's more or less successful reconnaissance, and here again experts saw "judicious suppressions." The accounts of the* special correspondents were, however, altogether jubilant. Mr Steevens especially lauding our "superb artillery practice." Later in the morning, however, the expected blow fell. The brevity of the despatch announcing the capitulation of the British battalions was as-..unsatisfactory as Sir George White's rather hysterical message shouldering the whole blame. At the Service Clubs General White was (on news to'hand) seriously blamed, everybody asking how he came to lose connection with the captured squadron. "One w.onld, think there were no such ■ beggars as scouts," said an irate, illustrious person wrathfully.

The London papers received the bad news calmly, but the Continental organs instantly surpassed themselves in predicting Great Britain's immediate extinction. Here fire three samples—French, German, Italian:— The Paris "Presse" says:—"The disaster will have a tremendous effect throughout South Africa. A general rising of the natives is possible, while the victory of the Boers is likely to provoke the entire Dutch population to revolt against the British."

The Berlin Pan-Germanic organ, "Rundschau," says:—"General White has.for the first time decided to confess to a defeat, but he did not do so until the secret could not be kept any longer. The mule story tops all the blossoms of General White's bombastic style that have been received so far. The Ladysmith defeat may prove very disastrous to the English. They will scarcely be able to defend their position." The Italian "Voce della Verita'r sees, already the downfall of the British Empire. Ladysmith will be followed by a revolution in India, and the advance of the Emperor Menelik for the conquest of the Soudan. If Britain attempts to violate the neutrality of Delagoa Bay the Boers have enough prisoners in their'hands to take their revenge." The London papers, I have said, were on the whole cool and practical. The "Times" remarked that Consols only fell.nine-sixteenths, and ended a sensible leader .litis:—

"We have incurred a serious check. We are already doing our best to repair it. Until this has .been effected it is our duty to face the facts like men. without minimising them on the one hand or exaggerating them on the other."

The "Pall Mall Gazette" sensibly observed: —"As we counselled moderation in the estimate to be placed on our successes against the Boers at Talana Hill, Elandslaagte, and Kietfontein, so we hope to find that there will be no undignified depression over to-day's news. It is serious, no doubt, but in this acutely emotional age we are inclined to exaggerate things far in excess of their real value, and to jump at conclusions as to their possible results, which forty-eight hours' calm reflection would forbid. This much we do know—that an emergency has arisen that must satisfy each and all of us that we have a tough task in hand, and that it. has to be carried through, despite a temporary disheartenment now and again, even though we have to put into force all the resources of the Empire."

The "Westminster Gazette" was more'critical:—"Dundee and Glencoe were untenable. The long line of communication between Ladysmith and those outposts was also untenable. Hereafter, we may have to ask why these untenable positions. wei'e. ever occupied; butMn the meantime we have the consolation of adding in all cases alike that "no blame whatever attaches to the .troops," who have pursued forlorn hopes, and held on to desperate situations with unflinching courage."

The "Morning Post" went, pretty straight for General White winding up:—"The Government has fuller knowledge of the events and conditions of this campaign than the public, and it is for the Government to meet its. responsibility by confirming or withdrawing its confidence in Sir George White, according as, in fact, that confidence subsists or has been shaken. The time is not for phrases and subterfuges, but for the truth in speech and action. There is no opposition, and can. be none; there are no parties. The Government has hot to look back, but to look forward. Us members must and will do what they feel in honour and conscience that their duty to the nation requires."

The "Chronicle" having solemnly gloated over its fulfilled predictions of evil goes on: "We hope that the trouble which is now upon us will strike a sober and serious chord in the country's heart. A light, nay, an ignoble, mood has grown out of our prosperity, has been worked by men not.of our race, or identified with our history, and has been fed by a press which will have much to answer for when the account of these latter days is made up. A touch of misfortune, even of national danger —for that is not entirely absent from the situation—may serve to warn the British people where their friends and where their enemies lie. The words of a greath modern poet —the greatest of living poets —are not without application to the public opinion in England:—

When days in drowsy calm go by.

Like funerals, at walking pace. You well may fear that the Most High

Has struck you from his Book of Grace. But unto you he was more good, He scatter'd teror in your blood, He scourged you with the rods that slay, The gifts He gave,. He took away.