MAIL NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 55, 6 March 1900, Page 5

MAIL NEWS.

NEWS AND NOT.ES -VIA

ENGLAND

(From. Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, January' 2G AN AMBUSH OF PRAYER.

The Press Association states that the Bishops, at their meeting on Tuesday, agreed to recommend to the clergy that Septuagesima Sunday, February 11, should be generally observed as a day of special intercession foT*tihe nation and the troops in connection with the war in. South Africa.

Wherefore this call for tha prayers of the nation That God In His might for our cause shall declare? War in Itself is our humiliation— And God i s not caught in an ambush or prayer.

Strive we for conquest of, Truth qVer Knavery, Seek we to subjugate Arrogant Pride. BMght we the battle for Freedom 'gainst Slavery, God. without prompting from Man, will decide.

Victor or vanquished—'twill be this behest for us, That is the issue for which to prepare. Silently leaving to Him what in best for us— God is not caught in tin Ambush or Prayer. CONSTERNATION AT LAST. Suspense, elation, depression, there you have our week's feelings in a nutshell. lrrom Friday lust and until Wednesday forenoon General Buller preserved the silence of the damned and left the folk at Home on the rock of suspense. Even the optimistic critics of the war could not conceal their desperate anxiety as day followed day without news of the doings of the Ladysmith relief force coming1 to hand, for. upon the success of that part of our army we all base our hopes and predictions. The doing's of Lord Methuen now are as nothing' to us. lie can reconnaissance to his heart's content and be sure that not even his most brii- ; liant "demonstrations" will rouse us to excitement; and as for General French and his merry men, well, eyeu j his little skirmishes and enveloping- . movements have almost lost interest whilst the fate of Ladysmith hangs in the balance.

"Is the War Office holding back bad news?" was the question upon everybody's lips on Tuesday evening, and when Wednesday morning's papers contained no news most of us braced ourselves up to meet a nasty blow. Instead we got in the early editions 10f the evening- papers the glorious news that General Warren had rushed Spionkop, a Boer position which our press 'guides had assured us by all they held most sacred was the key to the position. The papers containing' the news sold like wildfire, and London was all smiles in a moment. The next clay passed, bringing a few additional details, including' an account of a.desperate, but futile, attempt on the Boors' part to retake Spionkop. There was also a. little note concerning1 an "annoying- shell fire," which made some of us uneasy, as it seemed to indicate that Spionkop was not quite such a dominant position as wii had been told. Evidently it was dominated by the enemy's guns in some other part of their position, and those guns were apparently not within the range of Bull'er's heavy ordnance, and Sir Charles himself had not. seemingly, any artillery wherewith to engage the annoying- guns. Under the circumstances we felt that perhaps it would be wise to defer speaking- of the relief of Ladysmith as assured till we knew how far Sh% Charles' night coup had affected the Doers other than the surprised Spionkop garrison. This morning', soon after most men ■had taken their office, seats, we knew the worth of the '"great victory," for the newsmongers' cry soon after ten o'clock was "Spionkop abandoned by the British," varied with "Te.r'ble Noos from Sir Charlfls Warrin" and "Grave Noes from Buller."

The oflicial telegram contained in these early sheets ran, "Warren's garrison. 1 am sorry to say, I find this morning had in the night abandoned Spionkop." . And that is all we know now at 5 p.m. Whether he quitted on account' of the shell five aforementioned, or whether the Boers concentrating all their available forces drove him out we do not know. Hut the news has made us very wrailiy. and we are now hoping that there is nothing worse to be told tomorrow. Our' bnrt turns usually come at the week end.

THE CAREER'OF STEEVENS

George Warring-lon Steevens, whose meteoric career has been cut short at the early age of 30, was the sensational war- correspondent and Kiplingesque journalist of the end of the century, lie was a born Cockney, and educated at the City of London School, from whence he. graduated to lialliol College, where he arrived in time, to see something of and learn something from the.great Master, Jowett. Whilst at Oxford Steevens sent Henley the adroit classic parodies known as ".Monologues with the Dead," and they Appeared in due course in the ■"National Observer." He also took endless honours at the 'Varsity, and made many friends there. When William Waldorf. Astor. bought the -'Pall Mall Gazette", in 1893 from Mr Thompson of Thingwall, the editor, Mr E. T. Cook, and most of the existing statt" promptly gave notice. It then fell to YV. E. Henley to appoint a. fresh one, and be sure he didn't forget Steevens, who was in the editorial department under that magnificent failure Harry Oust, H. B. Marriott-Watson, and Lewis Hind (who shared a house with me then) were also prominently on the new P.M.G., and in consequence I sometimes he.arol gossip regarding the new P.M.G. through my housemates. Both were enthusiastic , re-g-arding .. young , George Steevens' merits. He wrote "Occ" (Occasional) notes as well as "Occ" verses, and could turn out a leader or "turnover" on any subject with equal ease and originality at 12 p.m. or 7 a.m. When he did occasionally do an "interview" Steevens wrote totally unlike the regular upholstering gang, and' (to tell the truth) ofen used his victim severely. His weapons were subtle satire and gay banter. I remember Steevens interviewing an eminent Imperialist (one of those asses who are apt to break any cause with their "burble" and bore-behaviour). The only person pleased with it was Sir A—- — X himself, and he indicated this by sending initialled copies to all his friends. ■ Steevens gave satisfaction to all his colleagues, yet his days were brief in "Pall Mall" Land. As the.hfiU'.to a.n Earldom, a. brillia-nt speaker in the House, and a flashing ■-leader-writer, -ever-ypne predicted & grand--editorial .-eaieer for., "handsome.

Harry Gust." Nobody gave a thought to W. W. Astor, whose millions made the smart new P.M..G. a gorgeous evening- magazine without much news in it. Astor himself seldom turned up at the office, in fact it was a ben trovato joke that nobody (Gust beingabsent) presented the new proprietor with a. chair in his own sanctum till Marriott-Watson most fortunately "tumbled" to the visitor. Cust's great coup was of course the discovery of Gladstone's pending resignation. A footman heard it discussed at dinner. What followed need not be repeated

as your readers all know it. As soon as Kosebery did succeed Gladstone, Astor calmly, and to Cust's amazement, got rid of him, and Steevens, Watson and others followed loyally in their editor's wake, sending in their resignations almost at the same time. W. W. Astor is no fool, and he did much to persuade Steevens at least, if not others, to remain. Instead of lying in a grave at Ladysmith, there can be small doubt Steevens would now have been editor of the P.M.G. had he given way.

Mr Astor finding the retiring editor did not seem to have given him a run for his; money, made Sir Douglas Straight editor. My belief is he now turns out almost as good a paper as it was in Morlev's days at half the cost.

When Steevens turned up again he' had married a clever weli-to-do lady of twice his ago. Friends remonstrated, but the couple were genuinely attached, and Steevens was a difficult person to persuade. Steevens joined the "Daily Mail" in 1897, and I propose to let Sir Harmsvvorth describe Steeven's career there since. Suflice it to me to say that Steevens ought not (as I remarked at the time) to have faced the campaign. He was overdone before he left. I see, too. the "Star" says:—"When Mr Steevens left Waterloo he travelled in the same train wJth Mr Ernest Smith, our correspondent now in Ladysmith, and it was' generally remarked by those who ' saw them oft1 that Mr Steevens seemed in anything- but robust campaigning health, The fact seems to be that i -Mr Steevens' remarkable gift of picturesque writing led him into a profession for which he was ill-equipped physically. He was a man of sensitive nerves and quick imagination, upon whom the storm and stress of war correspondence under modern conditions was bound to tell heavily."

A portion of Mr Alfred Harmsworth's "In Memoriam" reads rather oddly. He says after the usual preliminaries: "To those who met him in the course of his work here in London and in his travels throughout, the world, George Steevens' personality will not readily be forgoteu. Modest, yi most shy, alert, amazingly industrious, most amiable, and true as steel, of a curious and original humour in- speech and literary style, one was tempted to forget that the brilliant young journalist was also a scholar of more than usual distinction.

Why Mr Steevens' engaging qualities as a "brilliant young journalist" .should .sometimes cause one to forget he was "also a scholar of more than usual distinction" 1 don't know. One might suppose Tlarmsworth meant "Mail" men weren't usually 'Varsity men, but that of course is out of the question. Mr Harrnsi worth tells us: "After OmdurnKUi Steevens hat! said. 'This shall oe my last campaign, and henceforth 1 will i settle down to life at the head-' quarters of our journal.' We took ( him at his word, but during the tedious Dreyfus case he let us know, more than once, that he keenly desired to represent his newspaper at the front in the event of war, and so, after a few day's' holiday, he started, full of life and plans and promise, for South Africa, never, alas! to ieiturn."' So eventually to Africa he went, and on such terms from the '"Mail" and provincial aod American papers as I imagine no correspondent ever before received. BY MX ERNEST HENLEY. We cheered you forth—brilliant and hind and br;j.ve. Under your eoimiry'r; triutapli&at i;a:r you. fell, It vloatF, clear hear:, bver io caarer atave— | Brilliant and brave an 5 k-r.u, hail and . farewell. THEY WERE BEITISH.. A Berkshire drummer boy who was engaged in the disastrous affair at StormbiH-g as a -Mounted Infantry man sends homo a very graphic narrative of that encounter. In the course of his letter he writes: "The infantry had ordeis (o clear out of the mountain, and they had to run across a plain about a. mile wide] while tlie Boers rained bullets upon them. Our general was with us. He asked us whether we would stay and I cover the retreat of our comrades and! everyone said 'Yes.' He said 'I want a. dozen good shots to run forwardl, and line the crest of the kopje a hundred yards to the front. Who •will ■ volunteer?' Patting me on the back, j he said, "Now, then, you are British, | save your comrades' -lives.' So we went, and only lost one man." ■ MADE IN GERMANY. Writing from Pioterniaritzburg on j December 20th, the wife ot! a prominent oiHcial in the Natal Govern-' merit service says that of the 27S prisoners of war then temporarily ' ! confined in the local goal no less than 258 were Germans. This startling statement is borne out by the letters coming to hand from officers and privates at the front. One "Tommy" , whose parents reside -in. my locality wrote to his father recently and remarked in the course of his notes upon iv batch of Boer prisoners:—i "We are supposed to be fighting the j Boers. If anybody at Home wants to know the truth you' can tell 'em straight • from me that the genuine; article doesn't exist so far as dur; personal experience goes 'to show.' Tve. been in half a dozen affairs, big'! and. little, nnd have had a chance j with" the bayonet three times. My ■ first victim—he got it in the stomach and died next day—was a Norwegian . with a. crack jaw name that sounded , like -Tarjeson. Another chap whom I prodded in the thigh was a Ger-; man, and his pals who surrendered, j seven of them, were all Continentals, j some of them having been in Berlin, j Vienna, and Bit da Pesth less than a ! year ago. One of them who .spdke j good English—he was at a Strand;

barbers in '9G—told me that the Boers themselves were brave enough, but very careful. They are certainly careful of their own skins if I may judge from my own experiences. Hardly one of our.prisoners is a true Boer, that is a. genuine son of the country, and niost. of. them wouldn't have a /vote even .on the five years residential . .qualification. -Some of .thJeju,. undoubtedly1 iavgi-begpL, forced

to fight, but. many of. them were quite ready to have a smack at the 'British pigs'—not because they love the Boers, but beeaaise they hate us. Why I don't know."A SNAPSHOT. The raw mists of. the morning were still writhing- in the streets, but the first editions of the evening papers were already flaunting- their contents bills, and high above the hum of the traffic swelled the discordant shouts of the paper boys, "Grite Yictry. Eyar, papah!" It was only the news of yesterday rehashed in the subeditors den that they were selling but a little thin woman whose thin redand rough hands, with their lumpy joints, told of days at the wash-tub, fumbled eagerly in her pocket for : the ueeesary ha'-peimy, and then with the pink sheet in her grasp made : swiftly for the waiting- 'bus. Her i route was mine, and 1 followed the j little woman in black.. So eager was she to drink in the news that she scarcely waited to settle herself in her seat before commencing to read. As she scanned the columns her face ! lost, all its eagerness, and at length ; she said angrily to her fellow-pas-senger, "Well, if it ain't a shame, ■trickln' me into buy in' the same nobs as I read yestiddy in 'Lloyds," and this rnornin' in the 'Tellygraft/ It oug'hter be put a stop to; it's robbery." We all agreed, but the philosophic man in the corner seat remarked: "There are a few fresh deaths reported, that's all." "My boy's at the front," remarked the woman, "an' i ain't 'ad no news of, |ira for a couple of weeks. 'E was with Lord .Methuen at that place where the 'Ighlanders got so many killed, an' got a bullit through 'is 'elmet and a bit chipped off 'is left 'arid. I 'ad a letter. from 'im about it, an' to read it you'd think 'eed bin out on a picnic, 'stead o'i'aein' death for hours on end 'Is name? Scott — Privit James Scott, E'yl 'Ighlanders. 'E's a good lad an' bin a credit to me allus. Stamford-street, is it? Well, good-day to ye." And out of the 'bus she went. The fat man in the corner remarked as the 'bus renewed its journey: "Poor old girl! She'll see it soon enough, and 1 hadn't the heart to show her. Her boy's name is among the corrected casualties from Magersfontein." KRCGEB'S MONUMENT.

At the Authors' Club dinner the other evening Dr. Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who is off to the front armed to the teeth with lethal weapons' —knives, stethoscopes, pills, and potions—suggested that iutead of girding at President Ivriiger and thinking upon the nature of the punishment we should mete out to him when Britannia rules in South Africa, we ought in truth to be profoundly grateful to Oom Paul. He had solved for us a question that all our statesmen had found insoluble,. For myself, said Conan Doyle, I would build a monument to Kruger big as St. Paul's—putting1 him under it! — and would give it this inscription: "To the memory of the man who federated the British Empire." •■' Kruger, said Doyle, was "the" man in all the world who had made the British Columbian feel that he was blood brother to the Queenslander.

In his remarks upon the war generally the medico-novelist said that some eight months ago he took the chair at a peace-meeting. He could only say now that from his heart he abjured that error. He had seen more positive virtue in this country during the last three months than chiving- the whole of the forty years Of his life. A GOOD TIME BYE AND BYE. The finale of a letter written*by a-' private of the 2nd West Yorkshires i'a! good reading. After describing in a light-hearted fashion the dangers and trials of life on the road to Ladysmith he winds up: "The mail g-oes out today, so 1 must dry up. I wish you all a very .Merry Christmas and shall drink your health in anything I can gt-t.' I don't expect anything better i than tea without milk and made with dirty water. If J send you any money I want you to keep it for me till 1 get back. If 1 don't get back keep it. as I 'shall have no further use for it. If I |do get back all right 1 want to have 'the money as 1 intend to have a month !in bed and six meals a day! And a bath every morning, and a shave every! two hours ! ! And a cigar every hour and a glass of ale every time I am thirsty! ! ! And I can't tb'nk of anything else just now. But, Great' Scott!. I have slept in my boots for i weeks. AN' IMPERIAL STANDING ARMY.

The Admiralty and Horse Guards Gazette under the heading "The Mustering of the Clans," proposes that after the war is over a careful survey of the situation should be made to ascertain what particular duties could be assigned to local volunteers at Home, at the Cape, in Australia, Canada and elsewhere, and what proportion of these forces should be called upon to enrol for Imperial service for a given period and with a- liability to army regulations only when cajJied out for active service, or when in camp or barracks with the regular forces. The Gazette- thinks that.a. fair percentage of the present force of ,Yo:orhanry and Volunteers wijl be willing to prolong their service in South Africa, and that thus the foundation could be laid of an Imperial force from all parts of the world to stiffen our regular Army of occupation in those parts. For by holding out inducements to local contingents to serve as garrisons and to Imperial levies to settle in the eon.quered provinces, .together with Army reservists, a. most effective substitute for a. standing army, might be formed. - ANTI-B..UTISII CRITICISM. M. Vladimir Holmstrem and Prince 1 Ookhtomsky are the joint authors if an article which appears in the current North American Review, entitled "Great Britainion the War Path.'' The tone, of the paper is virulently antiEnglish, but it is nevertheless worth reading. Perhaps its most notable feature' is the importance attached by the' authors to the patriotic uprising of the British Colonies in support of the Empire in South Africa. H. Holmstrem and Prince Ookhtomsky discern in this uprising a danger for the peace of the world: "The immediate future," says a passage at- the end of the article "hiolds a probability of some combination of Powers, when the idea- gains ground that the balance of power is disturbed in the Indian Ocean and in the countries lying in its : vicinity, and that the growth of the Colonial military forces 'of Great BriItain is a standing menace to the whole ; world. Nobody can tell in what diree- | tion the Colonial regiments will bo i sent next time, especially when Great Britain is on the eve of developing her ! military resources at Home.