THE ASHANTEE WAR.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2645, 28 January 1874, Page 3

THE ASHANTEE WAR.

" The Spectator," of November 22nd, gives the following summary of the news from the seat of war:— The news from Ashantce published in London on Wednesday is, with one sicgle and most serious exception, exceedingly satisfactory. It shows, in the first place, that Sir Garnet Wolseley is an administrator as well as a soldier, and that he understands thoroughly, one point excepted, the exceptional responsibilities of his position. His motives for risking so many valuable lives in an unimportant expedition against four petty villages in the bush, villages not on his line of march to Coomassie, are quite conclusive. He had discovered that the Ashantees and Fantees alike had considered him merely a new Governor, and did not understand that he was also Commander-in-Chief in a war, with forces yet to arrive. This impression, while it encouraged the Ashantees, who of course could not see the preparations at Woolwich, discouraged the native allies, whose constant cry had been for a European leader who had never come. Further, he had found that the " friendly " tribes were in the habit of adhering to the strongest, and were convinced that the Europeans, though the stronger in the open, would never venture into the bush in pursuit of Ashantees, who therefore were, for practical purposes, much the more trustworthy allies. He had finally decided that a little personal experience in the bush might teach him himself a very great deal. Instead, therefore, of ordering Colonel Wood, commanding at Elmina, to attack the unfriendly villages around— villages proved to be harbouring Ashantees, and without either women or children, that is, ruled by men who expected war—Sir Garnet went himself, arranged a movement which was kept absolutely secret, and after ineffectually summoning the chiefs, marched on their villages, and destroyed them, without killing one woman or child, One child had been left, but an officer took that, the men quarrelled for the plaything, and the child will probably reappear one day as cook in one of her Majesty's ships. The march was of the most daring kind, for Sir Garnet, with only 178 Europeans, 205 trained and disciplined Negroes, and 126 Houssas, had to march twenty-one miles through unchopped bush, which might contain any number of Ashantees, and did contain a great many, whose policy was much like that of Red Indians—to keep in the forest, and fire on the invaders while themselves invisible. As almost invariably happened, however, in the old Red Indian wars, the heavy fire of the white men disconcerted them, the single gun and the rocket-tubes frightened them, and the Houssas dashing into the bush, caused a general flight. How many of them were killed the General does not know, nor does it signify, except so far as this, that the smaller the enemy's loss and the greater his demoralisaitiop, the better for the expedition. If the Ashantees fled after a large loss the contest will be serious, for clearly they can fight; but if they fled after a very small one, which we imagine to be the truth; the struggle is over before it is begun. It Is moral effect, not massacre, which is wanted in Ashantee, as in India ; and this effect has, we agree with the despatches, been thoroughly attained. First blood is everything in this kind of war, and it seems from the latest reports almost certain that the Ashantees, either believing their allies cowed by the skirmish, or themselves alarmed by the Europeans, have decided to recross the Prab and make for their own kingdom. If that is correct, and the despatches seem incapable of any other interpretation, they will spread terror throughout Ashanteeland, and render the neutrality of all the tribes who will be behind Sir Garnet Wolseley as he advances, tolerably certain. The neutrality, . jn fact, may be changed, as Sir Garnet hopes, into active assistance, as the heaten tribes will want to share in the plunder of the great kingdom, and will acquire that indescribable but incurable dread of what" the white man may do, which makes us so formidable in Asia. If with less than 200 Europeans Sir Garnet can penetrate as far as he likes into the bush, then of course the best thing to do will be to follow himj and not to fight him, he being clearly as formidable as Coffee Calcallee, and much claaer to themselves. In fact, as the news spreads, the brunt of the work wi}l be left to the warrior tribe which supports the throne of Ashantee and dominates the population, and it is to defeat this tribe which, either from organisation, or genealogy, or creed, is separate and braver than any other, that the Europeans are required. The despatches, published are believed to have been severely edited, but even if this is not correct, it is quite clear that Sir Garnet considers Europeans, and a gpod many of them, absolutely essential to success.

And this brings us to the one paragraph in his despatches which exoites in us a little fear. Is there not some sign of rashness of judgment in the summary condemnation of the Houssas as effective troops ? Sir Garnet says :—" No less important is the lesson I have myself learnt from this affair. I have been shown how little reliance can be placed on even the best native troops in this bush fighting, where it is impossible to keep them under the immediate control of European officers. The Houssas showed undeniable courage and spirit, but their uncontrollable wildness, the way in which they fired volleys in the air, or at imaginary foes in the bush expending all their ammunition, shows how little use they are for the work we have in hand. I do not doubt they will -improve under the teaching of the ofijeers of my force, and I hope shortly to have them more under my control, but I cannot expect ever to make of them a thoroughly disciplined body." These Houssas, who behaved exactly like French recruits, who, as Sir Garnet acknowledges, display the utmost gallantry, "had been drilled," remarks Colonel Evelyn Wood, quite incidentally, just two and a half days, scarcely I sufficient to take the wildness out of any i recruits, certainly not out of Afreedees, j whom Brigadier Hodgson turned into such : soldiers, or the Sikhs, who so. nearly boat ourselves. It is conceivable tb,2,t something may be suppressed in this part of the despatch— some, habit which British honour cannot put up with, as, for example, the mutilation of the dead — but even as regards that, there remains a question for |Sir Garnet Wolgely, namely, whether these men can be considered disciplined at all. He says, and of course says accurately, that in fighting the Houssas get out of hand ; but how could two and ahalf days' drill teach them to obey orders, or how many has he executed or otherwise punished for not obeying them ? Clive couid do nothing with his convicts till he shot a few of them; and Dumouricz' men, who won Jemappes, ran screaming tohide themselves in ditches; while General Hodgson's men, being more savage than all, became insubordinate, and were restored to obedience by a summary process it is not worth while to repeat here. Of spurge the Houssas may be irreclaimable barbarians, or, like some tribes of Bed Indians, uncontrollable in war ; but then, how did Captain Logan turn them into such very effective police ? Two and a half days seems but '& little time to allow savages almost without officers to. become disciplined, even if they were not black Mahommedans, with houri on the brain, aud probably some drug or other on the stomach*

They will improve, the General Bays, under 'the M teaching of the officeris of my force," but the officers of his'force will scarcely improve nnder the certainty that their chief neither cau nor will believe that their men can be made trust-, worthy. A little more experience would seem necessary to a judgment which, if correct, will either compel the Government to garrison West Africa with Europeans, or, as Mr Bright desires, to retire from settlements too costly in life to keep. A judgment based on two days and a half's drill can hardly be considered oeyond correction iv the light of other experience. Meanwhile, of course, Englishmen must be sent, and it is worthy of note that as usual when Englishmen are at work, thc marines and blue-jackete have exhibited no sign of extra illness. Since this was written, the " Daily News "' has received a full account of a second expedition, made to clear the road beyond Dunquah, an expedition entrusted entirely to Colonel Festing, the native allies, and fifty drilled West Indian negroes. The expedition was directed against the Ashantees' camp, which was destroyed ; but thc Ashantees, once seeing our men in tbe open, commenced j a galling fire, and slowly hunted the force back to its own camp at Dunquah. They charged most bravely, " and at one time nothing kept back the attack of the enemy but the steady working of Captain Bait's seven Houssas with the 7-pounder gun and a rocket-tube. These men have been trained entirely by Captain Rait since the arrival of the Expedition on the Coast, and except for his own immense personal exertions on this day, worked the gun aud rockets entirely themselves." These are the men whom Sir Garnet Wolsely, on the strength of one day's experience with a mob of them, drilled only for two days and a half, has summarily and finally condemned.