TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11154, 21 December 1901, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

An English paper reBurnham Boys cently published with at the Front, pride an industrial

school's report, showing tho number of "sons of the State" serving in South Africa, and the honours won amongst them, including several distinguished service medals, and a V.C. It may be news to our readers that Burnham has contributed her fair number of "recruities" to the war. About twelve old boye are now at the front in South Africa, and have had A good share of the fighting. Several once thought to be "wasters" have turned out steady men, and, from letters received,' teem to have no ungracious recollection of (heir training at the School. One, who reached the Cape as a sailor-lad, writes to explain how he there enlisted with the Bloomfuntein Mounted Infantry. "I am »t the front just now, and I have not much time to write to anyone lately, for we have. been marching about the colony for this last four 'months. This is the first long rest we have liad (five days). We have had a few engagements, but they were not much." He then describes the affair best worth mentioning. "It was at fjjhrartfontein. There was a neck about half a mile long, so we had to get through this neck, and the Boers got on the top of the ridge, and fired on our convoy, and shot wine of our mules off. I was in the t«*r squadron, was the rear-guard, and the Boers came along the ridge and down the kopje, and l> Squadron made for another opposite; then we got under cover, and the Boers came out in the open, and opened fire. I; like « silly, stood up and fired, and when the Boers got under cover they let mc have it, I can tell joxx, the bullets come like hail around mc; one hit mc on the boot, and carried off a piece of it. Well, I gob away out of that after some trouble, and got into a good place, and then t let them have it. ♦ I fired 28 rounds. There was only one horse shot in our company, but there were two officers and three men wounded in the Imperial Yeomanry. There "were 400 I.Y. : irit»b us." This young soldier, who condemns bit own tmtaught ardour as "like a silly," enjoyed • general compliment to the' squadron.. "1 imM the 8.M.1., under Colonel Monroe, H splendid man. There'was a trooper rode top to him, and said"'tfiSi D Squadron was in aY hot corner, and taPftaid, 4 Ah? They are all right i that's just what they like. They'll come through,, »)1 right. . And I tell you we were corner. Now J) Squadron is called The Fighting Squadron/ and has been' well spoken of by. the generals." "R*naifeber mc to all the fcoyiand friends," ends 'this letter.

. • Anotlher lad, In tJfae Rail- - . . flfiewi of War way Pioneer Regiment, h h And after a field experience '"of nearly four months, - .. was most annoyed that the Boert "very eeMom «top to fight," and, ■, > in W» opinion, do not half iplay the game ~, of eoMaering. "Wβ are always, getting I' called out night and day; we 'have to go > to «ome place they axe expecting tie Boers in, and of course we are there ready for j then*,"",-; tßtofc whenever w go out Obey jfc hever come. - Tfoey do not went to fight; I '«<••« ell,they mob to, (do is to-rob and plunder. ;-';'., 23fe other iiighitf 180 Boers rushed * little, ■£j if *mn called {Florida: there were only 30 '■'•■• rtm in the ttowni end no more for miles 'i v , Virottßd. The Boers thought they would. ftH *&at was in the, town and the ambat ! they got a surprise, for taenfoea* tile 180iBoera back until **** *o clear, for we were called out," had to xide twenty miles, and fcbtey to, hear that we were coming, so they 3!^ v . Reared.*, Such too tbe artless war (tales •■^}v-I>''jthot coxae from Africa to be read at Burn;'r'r:: : bam. . "Good oW NW Zealand!" was the fet < jgottacript to- a letter dated October, 1901. '):. ((^TMe'eMue ,, from "a trooper on ibis way home '~',^'after,Jß4-daye' eervice in the South African §*fc# J4gltbHorse. He has ainoefcad a stirring when he -visited the school on, o?':ffi''tinMl in <ti» colony, befoo* going /wSf&* iW, settle once more into good old |H" r,f£w-Zealand In the same spirit y. •» m tin letters from tooys who have taken V*£. *»: tte sea. M I >i»av« eeen a-lew eigfcte V thaV* yoa - o(UMsot ace in New ZeaJaawi," "W« we»t up to pee' '' J "l-' •;;** I V , King, open and saw some •: r iKKjad. eigfeta. Wβ ««« going. to tdgn on, X^ilk* *—— for ifaa Toand trip, end I am In the stoke-hole along wHh Charlie. fooow what is going 'to if ehe calls at Lyttelton we will - "I:"' t^ D ?^. , oi>-.and ccc yon, and fcaye a look fcoy* agaio.' I intend to make - ? fl, noons tripe, and tlten I snail the Union, Company /, It c ,^*r" lo *.*OT*aa' that N«w Zealand lottos vpon these adrentorere by land f >?*«*,- nor, as we have already noticed, *,'.'",',■ ™*"* B y *itteniesB f i«aiialne froan years offi- ' and coercion, "BurnKα is a funny place," remarks one frank "when ,w« *re away we feel i| we Would like to toe bapk again, and I'jCa , l^ •** ■***"* !W© wish we were prat The feefcng ie not ao tare, per- *» ne imagines, an connection witii fyJ-> '*$** schools tfhaai Bumham. • Meantime, diftnactly worth- record that the **«> war yeare i»ve given quite a. .*** element on «Uie eehool life. It is to SpJlf v t»ped, on all aooonnta, tlhat the link |f||y\§*ftb, the Empire may sot be broken, end BerDfl,lMn w*y exMWfc always a who!*»pride in old boye who are »erving Itte King. •

a'-* \-S America is having quite as *N's f much trouble as Great Britain j S^\ '," Bragging in'finishing off the war she ; . War. hae in band. It is nearly two 7<£>' •' • ■ years * since General, Otis re- ££&. Sorted to. the American, War Department .. ~4 Jhaff the whole of Central Luzon was in the V;V Jwnde & the United States troops; tfiat Filipino Congress, Secretary of State 'i V- treasurer were prisoners, and that only ; guerilla bands of the enemy were in arms •' 1 •?*&* Aguinaldo. Since then Aguinaldo , -•": J»as been captured, and stillj&e war is not .'_ #w. There are «tiU 42,000 American i\ \ • totopa in the PhHepplnee". and life is still % •■. : Hosaie outside tS& American outposts. Up V;'*• J % last about 70,000 troope were in «» field, and the cost of the war to America

... '•as reckoned to be £4,500,000 a month, which, says a writer in the "Daily Mail," ,' j compares unfavourably with Britain's out- ; »y of £5,000,000 a month for 250,000 men. ■i ■ General Mac Arthur, when giving over the ewnmand to General Chaffee in July, » reported to have said TZ&i he "bequeathed * , »w titiublea" to his successor—not a very optimistic remark J During the period be- / % ** m M ay/1900, and June 30th, 19Q1, ac- , cording to General MacArthur'a re'Porfc to tha War Department, t -r T? w were no fewer than 1026 •>; •vjnJMhea, in which the Americana had

lost 245 killed, 490 wounded, and 138 captured or missing, -woile tile Filipinos lost 4047 killed or wounded, and 29,000 captured or surrendered. And yet General Otis considered that the war had ended in November, 1899. The JPaljinos' tactics are very similar to those of tKe Boers. They always abandoned their position when attacked m force, and if hotly pursued they split up into small 'bodies, re-uniting when they thought it expedient. The Americans seem to have withdrawn troops from the Philippines sooner ~uian was prudent* "The withdrawal of these splendid regiments (of volunteers)," General Mac Arthur g report states, "in the midst' of important military movements, raised something in the nature of a crisis, to overcome which considerable ingenuity was required to create supplementary contrivances by which gaps in the fighting line could be temporarily filled, pending the arrival of regular soldiers from "the United States." " Although a later report by General Corbin, of the War Department, is more favourable in tone, and foreshadows a reduction of the force from 42,000 to 24,000 before the dose of the year, the present situation is hardly satisfactory. The severest American disaster in the whole war occurred less than three months ago, when a company of regulars was treacherously attacked and cut to pieces. "The effect," says the New York "Awny and Navy Journal," twill be felt throughout the Archipelago in our relations with the natives. The tendency to coddle will disappear, and civilian ideas as to the best attitude to take towards the people •will be subordinated to a military appreciation of the situation."