VIVID OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11643, 29 January 1900, Page 5

VIVID OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.

POLITICS HAMPERED GENERAL WHITE. BULLEPv'S INDICTMENT OF BRITISH SCOUTING. BLUNDERING INTO THE ENEMY. LONDON, January 27. (Received Jan. 28, at 5 p.m.) Vivid official despatches from officers commanding at .the front have been gazetted. From those it is gathered that General White wishud at the outset to concentrate his forces at Ladysinith, but Sir W. I<\ Holy Hutchinson, Governor of Natal, on political grounds,. resisted. General White therefore assumed the military risk of trying to remain at Dundee. General Lord Methuen states that he was j unaware of the nature'of the country round the Modder River. - ■ ■ General Buller describes the awkward position at the battle of Colen.so, and says that all the Boer visible defences were shelled without disclosing the enemy. He severely blames Colonel Long, who commanded the artillery, for his impetuous disregard of orders when the situation was promising. Dealing with the question of scouting, Buller refers to Major-general Woods's capture of Zqutspan's Drift as an example of the successful use of scouts, and says he supposes British officers will ultimately learn the value of scouting, instead of, as heretofore, blundering into the middle of the enemy and suffering accordingly.