THE FIGHTING FIFTEEN THOUSAND.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 104, 30 October 1900, Page 4

THE FIGHTING FIFTEEN THOUSAND.

The news frim South Africa of the. past few days does not by any means indicate an early proclamation of peace, on the contrary it seems to point to a concerted plan of guerilla warfare on the part of the Boer leaders to be carried on by small scattered commandoes operating at widely divergent points. From Norval's Pont in North Cape Colony on the south t6 Pienaars Station beyond Pretoria on the north, and from Gtlencoe in Natal in the east to Zeerust near Mafeking cm the west, De Wet, D'q la Rey, and Viljoen, at points' remote from each other, are all adtive, and the men they lead are showing a determination for "in-fightirtg" that is in sharp contrast to thfi earlier" tactics of the war. Further^ we are t6ld to-day on the authority o| the correspondent of the Daily Mail, that the Boers, have stilt 15,000 fighting men actively engaged in the field. Perhaps the, most discouraging feature of these new developments is the desperate atti-. tude of the "oath-breakers" in the Orange State, Natal,. and Northern Cape Colony. The men who attacked. Jaco.tad&l, destroyed the railway at Ndjcval's Pont, and raide.d the line near Glencoe must ha.ye known that, at best they could only in* flict but insignificant injury or a temporary dislocation of traffic, and that in the doing of it such of them as violated tjheir oath of neutrality or allegiance were placing themselves outside the pale of civilised warfare, Lord Roberts's latest proclamation is one of clemency inviting voluntary surrender, and it seems to have been answered by more active hostilities, and a sharper determination on the part of the surviving Boers to fight to tne bitter end. Presently Lord Roberts will hand over his command to the man of JGiartoum, and with that change, and still no sign of surrender by the Boers yet in the field, we may look for intern methods of repression, which, much as all Englishmen will deplore them, may be~ the most merciful in the end. Clemency has followed in the steps of Lord Roberts from the beginning and it seems to have been misunderstood. If it has been a mistake, it is safe to say that it will not be perpetuated by Lord Kitchener.