THE WAR'S COST

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1902, Page 6

THE WAR'S COST

SURVEY OF THE 1901 CAMPAIGN.

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 10, 1902,

It was alleged recently that Genral Botha had begged the despairing among- the Boer leaders still in the field to "hang on " till the English Parliament met, when, he assured them, the House of Commons would refuse to sanction any further expenditure on the war. The House of course will do nothing- of the kind, but will ask John Bull to consider the ways and means of raising further millions to carry on the war vigorously till the last reebie llicker of Boer resistance dies out. By that time we reckon that in money" alone we shall have .spent the gigantic sum of £220,000,000. Taking the period from the commencement of the military operations until March 31st next, the total amount earmarked for war purposes in South Africa reaches £151,000,000, and, as it is possible that an additional £9,000.000 will be annexed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,* from the anticipated surplus for the purpose of tiding war expenditure over until the new fiscal year, £ 160,000,000 may be put down as the total amount which will have been paid out by March 31, 1902. Thereafter provision will have to be made for carrying on operations until the Boers lay down their arms', and we may look forward to the expenditure of a further £00,000,000 to gain the desired end. On. that basis the total cost of the. war will approximate the amount already indicated. Meanwhile what sort of progress to peace are we making? A survey of the operations in South Africa for the year 1901 has been compiled by the Press Association, and affoi'ds some interesting information on this point. The publication from time to time of despatches from Lord Kitchener anil of weekly and monthly reports of British and Boer casualties give, by reason of their intermittent character, but a vague impression of the progress of events; therefore an effort has been made by the process of aggregation to obtain the actual results of the twelve months' operations, which represents, in fact, practically the whole period of Lord Kitchener's command of the British forces in the field. The result in the main is satisfactory, as it is not only possible to read into the War Office despatches and returns the policy of the Commander-in-Chief at the front, but th.<- process of attrition in the forces of the enemy is exemplified in a manner which probably has not been realised I y your readers, to whom J think the .survey will be found interesting : — - At the Guildhall banquet in November last Lord Salisbury said: "What we have to expect and hope for is a steady unvarying progress towards a successful issue. We are making, month by month and week by week, sure and substantial progress." To better realise the effect of the figures provided it is necessary to start with the beginning of last year and to quote. Mr. Brodrick's estimate of the enemy's force at that time. In the House of Commons in February last the War Minister said: "A recent estimate placed the number of Boers and others in the field at about 19,000 or 20,000. "

THE BOER LOSSES

Since that statement was made, and to the end of la.st, month, that number had been reduced by 15, 320 approximately. Though probably below the actual figures, it is possible to give the losses of the enemy only approximately for the same reason that has precluded Lord Kitchener from knowing the JJoers' precise losses. In a telegram to the War Oilice he explained that he reported home only those Boer casual Lies actually observed by the British or obtained from the most, reliable sources. He lias repeatedly stated that the enemy's losses were much heavier than he had reported, and that in some cases he had been unable to obtain the number at all. 'Hie Strength of the Boer and Free State forces at the commencement of the war two years and two months ago has been computed at about, sixtylive thousand or seventy thousand men. Twelve moriths ago, according to Air. Brodrick, the enemy's strength was about twenty thousand. To-day, accord Ing to the approximate figures given in the War Office • despatches and returns, the enemy's strength, unless possessed of unknown and remarkable recuperative power, is obviously scarcely more than a few thousands, if that, after allowing for Boer-wounded who may have rejoined commandos; that is, supposing always that Lord Kitcnener intends to convey the meaning tha,t the wounded he enumerates are mainly wounded prisoners in our hands. ENEMY'S CASUAL'!'IKS FOll THE YEAR. The following brief table gives the P.(hm- looses for the year:

It will be noticed that the figures for the first four months were not defined under the respective heads of the later returns. This was due, no doubt, to the fact that Lord Kitchener had not up to that time completed the organisation of his Army, but of the total of 2,844 for those months it is known that. 1,137 Boers were made prisoners and 436 others had surrendered.

THE SURRENDERS. No better testimony to the spirit of the surviving enemy can perhaps be afforded thai* the column in which the surrenders are given. It will be noticed that until August last the Boers surrendering averaged about five hundred a month. It was on August 6 that Lord Kitchener published to South Africa his surrender proclamation, and from that time it

will be seen' that the number of surrenders* has declined, but it is also noteworthy that in the later months of the year the prisoners t^ken by the British increased in number. The general decline of Boer casualties in November and December must not be regarded as indicating failing energy on the part of our troops, for Lord Kitchener anticipated and predicted such a decline when, in a despatch, Be explained that the continued weakening of the Boer resistance would necessarily reduce the nuniber of the enemy accounted for up to October.

THE CAPTURED GUNS. Before commencing the construction of the present remarkable and extensive line of blockhouses Lord Kitchener found it necessary to deprive the enemy of their guns. His early efforts in that direction were attended with marked success. By the end of May nearly the whole of the Boer artillery was in our hands, and the Boers destroyed those heavy weapons which they could not move. By April, General French had captured all the enemy's guns in the Eastern Transvaal, as well as two railway engines and 39 trucks filled with powder and dynamite, representing presumably a portion of the ammunition for the guns. This material General French destroyed. General Babington had captured nine guns from Delarey near Yentersdorp. Two gun?, were taken by Sir H. Rawlinson at Klerksdorp, and others by Dartnell's and other columns. In all twenty-seven guns have been reported to liave been taken during the year, twenty-six of them during the months of February, March, April, and May. They included half-a-dozen pom-poms, seven or eight Maxims, several 15-pouuders, Krupp gams of varying calibre, Creuzot, Hotchkiss, and quick-firing guns. In addition to these armaments, more 'than half-a-dozen., of our own guns taken from British positions at various times were recovered, while recently Lord Kitchener has reportd that any other of our guns in the Boer possession had been destroyed, indicating that the enemy have not the means of making good any defect the British may have made before parting with the weapons, or that they do not possess the ammunition with which to use them against us. KIFLES AND STOCK. It is a significant fact that though our forces have killed, wounded, captured or received in surrender 18,330 "Boers ( and others," the rifles reported to have been captured during the year number only 7993. There is, however, reason to believe that a quantity' of Mauser and other weapons must have been included in Lord Kitchener's frequent reference to "large capture of stock, stores, etc.," and •"quantities of arms, ammunition, etc." In any case the number of rifles returned as captured is considerably below the number of prisoners taken, to say nothing of the surrendered enemy, and;the arms carried by those Boers killed and wounded.

The depiction of the enemy's resources has been a remarkable feature of «the year. From the fignres collected it is a fact that during- the year more of the enemy's waggons and carts —mostly waggons —have been captured than rifles, namely, 5069. Though only 171,107 cattle, 1(34,730 sheep, 242 mules, and 5974 trek oxen have been numerically specified from time to time, Lord Kitchener's general references to such captures in the early part of the year exceeded, if anything, any references since made, and since May ( sheep, mules and trek oxen have! generally not been mentioned by Lord Kitchener as captures. Next to rifles, perhaps, ammunition has been most sought after by our men, wno have captured 2.034,773 rounds of small arm ammunition. THE BOEII PRISONERS. Concerning prisoners of war, Mr. Brodrick announced in the House of Commons that in the middle of-Janu-ary last the number of Boer prisoners was 10,000. The year's captures bring- this total up to about 27,000. Adding1 to this total the Boer casualties (excluding prisoners), it will be seen that our forces have been able to account for 34,329 oT the enemy, mostly in the second year of the conflict. Accepting the lowest computation of the strength of the Boer iieltl force at the start, and the process of reduction as represented in the above figures, and after allowing for 2000 men probably still in the field, the enemy must have lost in the first year of the war, other than in prisoners, over 28,000 from various causes. BRITISH LOSSES. It will be seen from the-following statement that the loss innie«.'d on the enemy has been accomplished at a cost in life and limb at a little under halt" that sustained by the Boers -in the aggregate; but that the reputation for straight shooting possessed by the Boers has not been exaggerated is shown by our killed and wounded.

'The total British losses in 1901 were: 209 officers and 12123 men were killed or died of wounds, 420 officers and 4197 men were wounded, 00 officers and 1435 were missing or taken prisoners, being a total 0f.8449. Tne officers and men figuring as "missing and prisoners" have in the main been released by the enemy; thus the net British Casualties in the field amount only to 69G4 for the year. It is due to disease and causes other than field operations that our army in South Africa has. suffered so severely. During last year, for instance, 102 officers and 3988 men died of disease; 15 officers and 342 men were killed accidentally; and 1047 officers and 24,699 men were invalided home, the invalided including, of course, many of the wounded.

1901. r3 s 13 o 3 o 3 o to 8 3 3 I ToUl. '" I i i I i i I January February... March April May June July August September.. October .... November.. December.. SKilk wou 1 ed and jnded, 670 Prisono Surret 2,1 irs and ;uiers, .74 12,844 153 223 147 202 170 425 I 233 161 no 109 111 86 i 114 308 269 97 1,512 I 1,1)74 ! 1,045 i 1,504 1 379 "osso 1,130 1,106 ! 535 , 5114 3fi7 549 393 197 121 2,290 1,910 1,670 ■2,341 2.i);.!i 1,970 1,751 1,483 Total.... 1,717 1,244 9,758 2,759 18,320 i i i i i i