BOER TACTICS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10540, 29 December 1899, Page 2

BOER TACTICS.

[ TO TW| EDITOR QV THB VKSMH. i S i ir,—l F** , with « reat Pleasure your leader in baturday's "i'ress,' re ContixLnt for the Transvaal, and the only fault I find is tbat you do not go far enough, for the present pus-lion ia so full 0 f danger that every man who volunteers, aud can pass muster, should be sent on to the front at once. To fully explain the position I must go back to the last Boer war. The game % c tten played waa to surround awl cut off several small British gamsons. They then selected a naturally strong position, and there awaited the relieving British mrce. ihe .British General walked into- the trap, and, as everyone knows, was wiped out. This time they are again pkyinj? the same game. Mafeking, Kimberiey, and Ladysmith they have surrounded and isolated, and at the two latter places have made impregnable naturally etrong positions, between our relieving force* and the beleaguered towns. Our General*, anxious to relieve their brave comrades before they are forced to surrender through want of food or ammunition, made a dash at those impr-eg-nable positions, and our men were shot down in hundreds, and Britain's brave eons west forced to retire, baffled and beaten, and bleeding at every pore. And why? They were trying to do that which the writer haa always held to be impossible—that k, to take by front attack a naturally strong position, entrenched and held by determined men, armed with modern weapons. You can now see the deep game the Boers were playing in isolating these plaoes. If there were no garriaona to relieve, we could take our own time, and strike when and where it suited us, but now tlie question is, what oan be done to relieve the present position? And to that I reply—Play the Boers' own game, surround them, and cut off their supplies. There is nothing new or impossible about U»s. Wellington all but had the French at the battle of the Pyrenees, and the Germans copied liif- tactics a* Metz and Sedan. All that is reouired ia that our armies should greatly outnumber the enemy's force*. Let the number of troops now in South Africa be doubled, and our generals could easily surround and cut off every Boer army, and bring the war to a successful issue with very little loss of life. Whereas, if they are forced, owing to want of raen, to attack the Boer position in front, the sacrifice of life will appal the whole civilised world, and for the sake of ihe breve menjwho are now spilling their blood lake water in South Africa, and also for the sake of their little < ones apd their friends and relatives in every part of the Empire, I. would call upon the Government ana people of this oolony and j of every part of the Queen's dominions to I see that our men's lives be not sacrificed for tho want ot sufficient forces. It only means a little more money, and what ia money to an Empire like ours com. pared to the loss of our brave sons, —Ybiir&j -to., ■ ";"r:y.... OLD SOLWER,