COLONIALS IN ACTION.

New Zealand Mail, 8 February 1900, Page 28

COLONIALS IN ACTION.

NEW ZEALANDERS PRAISED. DUR ATION OF THE WAR, AN INTERESTING- FORECAST. The Most Rev the Primate of New Zealand (Bishop Cowie) has received the xollowing very interesting letter irom the Rev A. .f. Wingman. senior chaplain of colonial forces on active service: Sr, Mary’s Rectory, Port Elizabeth. December 22, 1899. My dear Lord Primate, —As senior chaplain of the colonial forces of Cape Colony, I am in charge of scattered posts and garrisons upon the line of communication between Port Elizabeth and General French’s base at Naauwpoort Junction. I spent a fortnight recently in visiting all these military camps and arranging for their church parades, etc., and it was my duty to report myself to General _ French before returning to my duties as garrison chaplain at Port Elizabeth. The general gave me a pass in his advanced camp at Arundel, which contained a battery of Royal Horse Artillery, the Carabineers, the Inniskilling Dragoons, a squadron of the 10th Hussars, a battalion of mounted infantry, the New South Wales Lancers, and the New Zealand Rifles. A smart skirmish with the Boers took place whilst I was in camp, and I could follow the enemy’s movements with a field glass. A.s a Cape Colonist I was naturally most interested, in my brother colonists from Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand Rifles struck me as being smarter and better horsed than even the famous New South Wales Lancers. I went down their lines and was struck with the cheery workmanlike look of the _ men and the admirable and serviceable character of the horses. Their horses were every bit as good as those of the crack cavalry regiments m camp with them. After the morning skirmish General French returned to nis headquarters by train and I travelled m the same carriage with him. The General said that the New Zealanders were the best men he had for the work in hand. He was deeply impressed by their discipline and smartness in doing mounted infantry work. They were able to fight the Boers in tlieir own way, and showed admirable coolness and steadiness under fire. General French won the battle of Elands Laagte which is so far the most successful action in the war. He thoroughly under- . stands the Boer methods of warfare. . and praise such as he gave the New Zealanders is worth having indeed. > Our Christmas is gloomy. We have j received a temporary eheek. It must not_ be forgotten that the ablest strategists in Europe have planned the t Boers’ Campaign for them, months ago, > and that tfce.v have in their armies at least 2000 trained foreign officers, most--1 J y . Germans and Hollanders, with a s sprinkling of Russian. French and Bel- . giane. Their artillery has so far outi classed ours and no European nation * has ever before bad to face such a task > as that which lies before us. We have to fight 60,000 of the best mounted in-

fantry in the world, ably led by tho best of European officers, who know the country and have a natural genius foil defensive warfare. When the Boers are turned out of one position by the bayonet, at a heavy sacrifice of British lives, they appear next day on another position equally strong and the process has to be repeated. -~ It will take I fear 150,000 men to finish the war and capture Pretoria. Our difficulties 'are increased by the strange interlacing of the English and Boer populations. The slices of Cape Colony which the Boers have annexed are more Dutch than the Free ■State and Transvaal. Bloemfontein, tho Free State capital, is practically an English city. Very little Dutch is spoken in the streets, and a census of Pretoria, taken as the war broke out, revealed no less that 17,000 English people as permanent citizens of the town, besides the 50,000 English of Johannesburg. Most of these people have got away, and are now penniless refugees in Natal and Cape Colony. We have at least 5000 refugees in Port Elizabeth. But enough English remain in the Transvaal and Free State towns to make military bombardment of them very difficult without injuring our own people, and Kruger is well aware of this.

I fear the war will last for a year at least, but there can be only one end, and only one settlement, namely, a South African Dominion under the British flag. Our clergy in the diocese of Bloemfontein and Pretoria hive suffered much, and the Boers have openly said that they will abolish the English Church if they are successful. But a cause bolstered up by deliberate official falsehoods and by a racial contempt for the English, which is based on Calve nisiio self-esteem, cannot prosper. We can put our trust in God, and in the righteousness of our cause.—Your Lordship’s faithful servant, A. T. Wingman, D.D., Canon of Graham’s Town and Senior Chaplain of Colonial Forces on active service.