THE SECRET OF GUERILLA WARFARE. WILL THE BOERS FIGHT AGAIN?

Otago Witness, Issue 2631, 17 September 1902, Page 27

THE SECRET OF GUERILLA WARFARE. WILL THE BOERS FIGHT AGAIN?

The Rev. James Green, chaplain to the Commonwealth troops in South Africa, where he ha-s spent over two years, in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald from Capetown, writes : — The town is full of British and Boer officers, both returning home. Many of the Boers are from St. Helena, others from the field are here to meet friends, and so I found myself sharing a room with Louis Botha's chief staff officer, H. H. Fraser,. and ex-Commandant Bouer, in a Capetown hotel. So far as I had se«n in the Transvaal the Boers were admittedly well beat-en and sick of war ; but in Capetown and district I was amazed to discover more Dutch feeling than ever. Thi-3 was the subject of our conversation. To Fraror I expressed my surprise. " I am not surprised," said he. "Do you know I left Botha's staff a few months a^o to come to Cape Colony with two companions, and when peace was declared I surrendered a commando of over 200 men in Calvinia in the colony." "The colony must be your great stronghold?" I remarked to the ex-commandant. "Yes," he replied, "if only we had come down to the colony earlier the war would have had a different ending." MADE TERMS FOR THE REBELS. " Well, I hope that both Briton and Boer will work cordially together, and that this peace may be a final and friendly peace," I remarked. He shook his head ominously, and said " I hope so, too, but you know I am an Afrikander of the third generation, and though I wa« taught from my yoxith that an Englishman is the «oul of honour I am beginning to doubt if. It is a fact," he continued, " that wo made terms" for the rebels How could we surrender without securing those who had stood in with us? They were to be released, and yet thousands of them are still in prison. Remember, if there is any more war it will be different now. Afrikanders are more united than ever, and it will not be a 'hands up war' — it will be war to the death." I reminded -him that the peace terms did not provide for general and immediate release of rebels. None were to be shot; all were to bo disfranchised for the present, and dealt with by their own local courts, and it would be impolitic- to open the doors for them all to go free without compliance with the laws which they had broken. He could not gainsay the facts, but still shook his head, and asserted that he wanted p&ace ; the Dutch wanted peace, but there would be no peace whilst rebels were kept in prison. "You have made- a good fight of it and a grand surrender. Everybody admires the way you have come in and gosne- back to your work, and I hope nothing will disturb the good relations which seem possible. You fought to the last " '' No," he interrupted me, "we didn't. We could ha\e fought for other two years. We gave in for the sake of the women and children. Four thousand burghers were slain ; but 20,000 women and children died in the conorntrat'on oamp*. That's why we MirrejHered." " Of the 20 000 by far tho majority wore children earned away by epidemic?, measles etc." He nodded a-«,ent. "You always ha\e a good deal of mortality amongft your children, and what would it have been if we had not cared for them in our camps?' 1 And then I continued: "You do not in your casualties reckon the mercenaries who fought and died for you— the Scandinavian and tho Irish Brigades, the Americans, the Germans, and the French." Without pu;suing this further we went on to refer to other things. "I was told," I rcmaiked, '"by one of your loading men that you had iiot more than two months' supplies " "Don't believe it," was the rpply ; "we can aiwayb get.food." THE BOERS AND THE BLOCKHOUSES. " Then the blockhouse lines were getting too strong for you?" "True, the blockhouse lines were a great hindrance, but we could always g»»t through them." "How?" I p«ked. "We would station our riflemen 'o fire on the blockhouses to either =ide, then one man would ride hard at the entangle rnent* and, dismounting, cut through them with wire-cutters. Wo would follow as quickly as possible, and though both men and horif would be scratched, and sometimes a fow hit, we could get a commando thr,wyh at any time," "The man who went fir->t would have to be a plucky fellow?" " We were never short of biave men," he replied. Thib. led to the query, "Were all the stories true about the Boer leaders using their sjambok on their men?" "Quite true," the ex-comipandant replied with a smile. " When we began our guerilla war we broke up all our big commandos into small ones of about 150 men, with commandants and a corporal for every 10 to 15 burghers. When we were not fighting we were all on an equality, and lived like a happy family, but when fighting begins there must be authority and obedience. If I was going to attack my weapons were a revolver and a sjambok. I led the men in, and it was the business of the corporals to see that they came in. If a burgher hung back he got the sjambok. I suppose it wa& the disgrace of it that the Boer feared ; and the weight of it." he rejoined "We flogged them a* hard as we could 1 ." " But a man who had to be sjamboked would not bo much help,"' I said. "Perhaps he ™a- a crack >-hot, and we needed him ; but, as you -ay, in the long run the c e sort aro not mm h s*o<>d "An Australian wouldn't <-tarn] that, you know. If an officer with us flogged a man he might expect to bo m the next fight." " Xor.'on'O'," said the Boer; "human nature is the same. I would sjambok a man that did not go in if I were leading Australians. Tho men that need that sort of argument are in the minority, and if they threatened their leader the others would

cut them into mincemeat. Thai's wlat wo relied on. Your methods are not much different eithe.-. I declare pn my hccour, said Fraser, " that at Magersfontein, vhen your infantry were coming at us again and again, i-he British pom-poms and maxims were playing on their rear." "That may have bp&n a mistake; mistakes like that do occur in the heat of battle." " It was no mistake," he said, shrugging his shoulders, a.id lifting his hand and eyebrows in the Dutch way. COURAGE OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER. % " Now what is your candid opinion of the courage of the British soldier?" said I. "' Well, no one compares with the infantry. If British infantry begin a job they go through with it. and their discipline is marvellous ; but mounted men often yield to the temptation of having a horse and clear away." " It was the same with us," he hastened to add. "If a Boer wants to fight he is hard to beat. To-day I might have 25 men and they would do wonders. To-morrow I might have 200, but they are not inclined for fighting, and it is no good leading them into it." " Your commandos were often broken up?" ■" That is the whole art of guerilla warfare. You have no idea what a lot of work you can got out of a few dozen marksmen. I used to hang on the flanks of your camps and columns, bothering them a lot, but when the day came that I was cornered and knew the price I woulld have to pay if I fought I would dismiss my men with the understanding that we were to meet agaia at a given time and place. Then another thing which we did was this: We fought a lot in some particular district, and then when all your columns got out after us we went right away and rented." Commandant Fraser thinks that the greatest failures in regard to JBriti&h and colonial mounted troops was their inability to look after their horses. "Just think of the stupidity of men watering their horses in ranks, and sitting on their horses in the stream. "With us the care of the horses is an individual matter, and if there were a few minutes to spare a Boer would take the bit out of his horse's mouth and let it graze." They leckoned they could get 10 miles a day more out of their horses than we could. He thought that if they had had young men all through they would have done better. De la Rey is the oldest commandant. He i-s a "well-preserved, wiry man of 54, Louis Botha ia 34, and De Wet is not 4-0. Many of the Boer commandants are from 22 to 30. Kemp, De la Rey's most brilliant lieutenant, is only 26. Fraser himself is about 27 or 28, and Commandant Bouer, his companion, is not 30. DEMONSTRATIVE PEOPLE. In spite of ex-Commandant Fraeer's fears I don't think the Boers will fight again. The people who are making a lot of nowe in this district are .the people who have not been in the field. The arrival of the- Boer generals hsu. excited the Dutch. Wherever De. la Rey, Botha, and De Wet go crowds of admirers follow them. No doubt the storm-centre has shifted down to Cape Colony, and there are many wise men who think Mr Chamberlain has made his great mistake in not supporting the suspension of the Constitution ; but. after all, the weakness is in ourselves. The present Ministry is weak and pliable. Sir Gordon Sprigg, though respected, is admitted by his admirers to be too fond of office and without outstanding strength Everybody thinks> of " Rhodes " '" Oh, if Rhodes had been with us now," they say, '"he wou'd have been the strong man of the hour." But perhaps the man of the hum* is not far away, and there may bo in Ihf upr'on of some unknown country l-oL; ioirai a man of broad Imperial sentimenti- who can rule the English and at tho samo lime nun ago the Dutch Tins much ifi cerfrii'i. the Xfnkamirr Bontl is stronger than over, but Sir W. Hely Hutchison and L* rJ Mj::i<2'- aro ivi^e men, and 75,000 troops arf- >3 Iji left in the> country.