NICHOLSON'S NEK: THE BOER SPIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2410, 10 May 1900, Page 24

NICHOLSON'S NEK: THE BOER SPIES.

These blows coining in succession had, I know, the most powerful effect on the after' events of the campaign. They taught the Boers caution in advancing, even with their overwhelming numbers, and they lost time. As the enemy's forces closed round Ladysmith I determined to make one effect to beat them in the open, and the result was a battle which we know ( as Lombard's Kop. There are ups and downs in every campaign. I had, as I thought, with the able help of General French,' located the enemy in a position which they held up to dusk on the previous evening, with their guns, and which Ithought afforded me an opportunity of giving them a hard knock. All through this campaign, from the first day the Boers crossed the frontier to the relief of Ladysmith, I and others who have been in command near me, have been hampered by their excellent system of intelligence, for which I give them all credit, but I wish to goodness they had neglected it.— (Loiighter.) I could not move a gun, even if I did not give the order till midnight, but they knew it by daylight next; morning. They had arranged every stage in their forward progress long beforehand, and they had their agents, who gave them their 'intelligence through' thick and thin. locked ut> everybody who I thought could go and tell— (laughter) ,— but somehow or other the telling went on. I had 16 miles of a. perimeter of a position to watch, and I coma not prevent the natives from getting over it. TAKING THE RESPONSIBILITY. The unfortunate incident of Nicholson's Nek was an attempt on my part to make 'that, day a deeidiye day. Nicholson's Nek was Ilia only gate through which I could use my magnificent force of cavalry, and I made an attempt to keep that gate open in hopes that I would be able, with my cavalry, to get round arid turn their defeat into a positive disaster. You all know how that turned out. and I have not scrupled to lake the responsibility. — (Cheers.) Bus, gentlemen, war*is a balancing of risks, sometimes gr<xve risks, against the possibilities of big rebults, and the man who does that, and fails, is responsible for that failure. — (Hear, hear.) After that, gentlemen, I felt the responsibility that rested on me that the colony •of Natal behind Lady smith must be my flrsfc consideration. — (Cheers.) There were thousands of people in my rear id the west when I fought 10 the east and north at Lombard's Eop, and so I made up my mind to establish Ladysmith as a shield, to hold it out es far in front of the capital city of Pietermaritzburg, the vitals of Natal, and its all-important seaboard

,ru. - „ THE HOLDING OF /LADYSMITH. T believe I am not going out of my province when I say that Ladysmith, from its position, formed the point, of most convenient and most rapid concentration to the united armie3 of the two South African Republics, under Hie command of the Commandant-general (General Joubert), a soldier and a 3-cntlema.ll, with whom I had many dealings afterwards, and whom I always found inclined ta treat me up Jo the very latest date with every concession of humanity and civilisation. — (Cheers.) The Boer view, I have no doubt, was that their overwhelming numbers, and in many instances their better armament, would very soon knock us out of Ladysmith, and that that" would be the decisive blow which would be the signal for Dutchmen throughout the colony to rise and join the Boer forces. We on our part hoped that we should be able to hold up the shield long enough and strong enough to allow the great sleepy giant who we knew was at our back to wake up a bit — (laughter and cheers), — and .stretch his great arms out to save his own. You know that we were right, but I believe I am only stating a fact when I say that the Boers, with that beautiful preparation for the future which 1 enabled them never to lose a moment, had actually got the trucks ready within five miles of us to send us off prisone-s to Pretoria. — (Laughter.) TRIBUTE TO NAVY AND COLONIES. You sir, have alluded to the help given us by the naval men. I am most proud to acknowledge that service. They came at the nick of time, as Jack generally does. — (Cheers.) Their faces, as they hauled their big guns into position and stood on the ram1 parts to see the effect of every shot, , were enough to put heart into a coward. You, sir, have alluded to the magnificent service rendered to us by colonial volunteers. — ■ (Cheers.) . I have been a soldier of our Queen — God bless her — for now nearly 50 years;— (checrij); — and I can confidently and sincerely say here that I never had the honour to command so fine a fighting force as the Imperial Light Horse. — {Cheers.) Ladies and gentle-

(Continued on page 27.)

(Continued on page 24.)

* meu, five of their commanding officers in succession fell fighting in the foremost line, but " that does hot mean that the men junior to ' them wanted leading. Far from it: The junior trooper would take his stand as bravely, as independently, and without anybody near him^as if he had been locked together in the centre of his" squadron. — (Cheers.) I would also like to say a word for other colonial volunteers. A gallant force, under that distinguished and very able officer, Colonel Royston, "from the very commencement of the campaign in Natal, were the eyes and the " ears of the force, and to the end they had bub one purpose, and" that was to keep the flag up.— (CKeers.) During the siege, and under circumstances which you, Mr Mayor, have referred to as calculated to make the heart etok — our hearts were never sick; it was a . certain sickness about another part of the, person.— (Laughter.) During that time I usea . sometimes to talk to men in high positions — men" of a race who grow pretty thick here, millionaires, — and they used to say: ,' We will back you in anything you do; we have got to keep the flag tip." Very close behind them, came our own soldiers. In an affair of this sort", in winch every colonial volunteer is a- shareholder, there must naturally be a tiigher patriotism than we can expect to find in our brave soldiers, who are citizens of the world, and who one day are fighting the bat- ' tie of England, freezing on the top of the hills in 'the Himalaya Mountains, and a few weelcs later doing the same kind of business on the sun-steeped kopjes of Natal or the - Cape Colony, or the Orange Free State. THE BRAVE TOMMIES : MOVING NARRATIVES. - At the risk of tiring you — (laughter and '" Go on, sir ") — I would like to say a few words to show you the class of man whose grand work you have come here to commemorate to-day. Our junior officers and soldiers have little to look forward to but haul knocks) and early death in a campaign such as this, and it is the kindly appreciation from people who know the value ot their aer\ ices and who are.ujtselfish enough to come here and gi?o their testimony to their appreciation that is their highest reward. You have referred to the gallant way in which tli'e very splendid and gallant attack on our position at Char's Camp was repelled.— (Cheers.) I had to hold Ca^ar's Camp as a matter of brag to prevent ' the enemy's big guns from gaining a position. The important corner. of this position was held by 16 soldiers of the Manchester Regiment without an officer from 3 o'clock in the morning till the sun was sinking low in the west, with the result that 14- of them lay dead across theu % entrenchments, and two of them — one wounded — held the position till we had, with God's help, the advantage to clear thorn off with the help of that gallant reginfent. the Devonshires.— (Cheers.) I will aivp you another instance. On that same day I ordered a" batteiy to take up a position where I thought they could shell with great effect another ..slope of that Cassar's Camp. The gtihs came into action under the fire of very much heavier ordnance from a position which I daresay you all 'know by name — Bulwana. During the action there wps a sergeant in command of one of the guns silting rather doubled up on the trail of his gun. A 4.7 shell took off "his leg high up on "one side, and took the arm out 'of the socket, and he fell"; 'across fhef trail "of the gun, as. they ( thou'ghl v an inanimate, speechless mass. But,, td 'the' astonishment of ,every man amongst them,- a voice' came from' the ma^ ir.otfeiufr them ; _on~to their duty, and saying: ".Here, you men. roll me out of the way, and go on working the gun." I don't think I'mentioned his name. It was Sergeant Bozeley. — (Cheers.)

THE IMPERIAL SPIRIT. Ladies and gentlemen, England always comes out best in the hour of aclversitj'-—(cheers),--and this campaign has- been no exception to that general rule. " We are all proud of being English. England is only a little dot on the map of the world, on which we balance one foot of the compass while we wheel, the other leg towards the ' Poles to- mark the confines of Greater Britain. — (Cheers.) In this case, as ii: many former ones, we have found that this little England is the heart of a vast sys tern whose giant limbs reach to the uttermost parts of the earth.— (Cheers.) So bravo and so .strong lias' proved the pul&alion of that little heart that it has sent a current of English life-blood to the furthest extremity of the furthest possessions, and knit them together as one unconquerable whole. — (Loud cheers.) The 'dark hours, of our adversity, I belie vo, are past. lam sorry to say that my share m the business is over, but I know that I have had the honour and the pride to be a lieutenant of the gallant Field-Marshal -who now so ably directs military affairs in this country — (cheers), —who is going to be the biggest soldier in England since the clay* of Wellington, and who already possesses, and deservedly so, the hearts of the whole nation. — (Prolonged cheers.)