THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11621, 8 April 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1901.

The sailing of our Seventh Contingent from Wellington is but one of- the large and complicated number of similar transportations. At the present time, troops are being | carried to South Africa from New Zealand, from Australia, from Canada and from Britain, while returning men are being carried back, not merely to these wide-separated parts of the Empire, but to India and to the great ocean fortresses. Horses are being forwarded in thousands from North and South America, from Australasia and from Europe. Artillery and ammunition, clothing, provisions and stores of every kind are likewise in transit. The oceans are mere ferry-ways for our Imperial transports; every part of the world which can facilitate the Imperial operations is being laid under contribution for men, horses or supplies. Nor is this of recent occurrence solely. Whatever may have been the faults of Army organisation either in Britain or in South Africa; whatever may have been the , mobilisation weaknesses at Home or the transportation difficulties at the actual seat of war; the maritime energy of our nation has nobly met the emergency from the first call made upon it. In the progress of this great struggle there are many things which we have had to regret, many shortcomings which have deservedly been criticised by all who love the Empire. But amid it all we can point with pride and satisfaction to the manner in which our sea-power has been demonstrated. The march of Britannia is still over the ocean waves; her home is still upon the deep. Our Seventh Contingent traverses the road to the Cape as certainly and as swiftly as did our First ; our time-expired men come back to us as though they were passengers on a fully-equipped suburban railway. This wonderfully organised transportation service is on. a practically new route. It is duplicated and repeated in every direction. For eighteen months the Cape has been like the nucleus of a gigantic web. ','■:■' • -■ ■

This wonderful Imperial transportation is not merely unique in the whole history of the world, but could not have been so completely and so easily carried out by any other nation, past or present. ; It was • only possible to the British marine of the present generation. We all know the time and the difficulty with which the historic military movements by water have been undertaken. William the Conqueror had only a few miles of sea to cross and a comparatively small army to transport, yet the preparation of shipping taxed his strength for many months. Phillip '■■:- of Spain was years preparing the Invincible

Armada. Napoleon the Great similarly had to make enormous preparations for the proposed crossing of the English. Channel. Even in our own time .the American Government was not able to throw its army into Cuba without strenuous transportation arrangements. : The Imperial Government was able to place over 235,000 men : in South Africa, with fully 100,000 horses and with immense quantities of warlike stores of every conceivable description, as fast as they could be collected at the scattered ports of embarkation. Whatever else failed, the transports never failed. . At the Plate and at the Hoogly, at Auckland and at Halifax, at 'Southampton and at Brisbane, at Sydney, ; at New Orleans and at Trieste, shipping was promptly available. It has never been alleged by the most insinuating critic that there was a block at any port where men, horses or stores were gathered. Blockade there may have been where the military authorities had to rely upon land-lines. Blockade there never was where we were able to move by sea. Proud we may assuredly be of this demonstration of our unrivalled shipping facilities, but if this were all it would. be a comparatively little thing. France axid Germany might have done wonders in the transport line, but it would have been at the cost of their merchants. Our British shipping met the unforeseen and unprecedented demand without sign of strain. Not a single shipping route was interfered with. This enormous national demand for transportation did not in any way dislocate the merchant service 01 imperil our mercantile supremacy by leaving our trade open to our rivals. This is the most satisfactory phase of our transportation triumph. Our European critics pay us the highest compliment when they preserve unbroken silence concerning the manner in which we carried the war to Africa.

It goes without saying that the cost of this unprecedented transportation was very heavy, forming one of the main items in the warbill. Yet it is better to pay millions for transport and fight away from Home, than it is to meet the enemy in our very gates. In the first eleven and a-balf months of war, £10,400,000 was spent on naval transport. This includes line of ships for transport or hospital, messing, bedding, forage, freight of horses, pay of transport officers and telegraphic expenses. As the expenditure still goes on, there can be little doubt that it will reach nearly £15,000,000 before we can consider the account closed. Heavy as the account undoubtedly is, we may console ourselves with the knowledge that with the single exception of our American kinsfolk no other nation in the world could pay it as easily as Britain. And few, indeed, will grudge this expenditure : for the practical absence of all mishaps, the magnificent ease with which it was accomplished, the limitless reserve of strength shown in every quarter of the globe where our shipping was called upon, makes the transportation phase of the South African war something of which every man in the Empire may well feel proud. It is true that no inimical flag waved on the oceans. But who knows what might have happened had our navy been ; less powerful 1 And who can doubt that had the worst come to the worst our warships could have kept the sea-road open for our transports _