THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6717, 13 February 1900, Page 4

THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

A military expert, Wrltifctg iii the " Daily News," says:— There i_ Oiie of Lord. Roberts's appointments for this campaign' that is very significant, so significant that 1 I have ventured to call it .above nothing less than a " pronunciamento " on the past Of the war, and on the heedful reforms ih its conduct. It may be remembered that some time ago I pointed to the experiences 1 of the American Civil War, as those that required to be most closely applied io the present campaign. Further, I ventured to recommend a certain book as illustrating completely what seemed to me the defects in Our past, dealing with the war and the basis of the Boers' successes. The man who has inade the most complete study of the American Civil War, travelling all over the battlefields, studying all the ground of the campaigns, conversing with all the survivors on both sides in that great contest, studying all the innumerable memoirs written by those who took part in it, comparing the different maps ancf plans — the thai., in fact, who. knows all the details, as well as all the principles, of that war au fond, is Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson, up to the taomeht of his appointment Professor of Military History at the Staff College. He is also the author of the volume from which I quoted the other day, tnose principle, of Stonewall Jackson's, which seemed to me to have been in practice, so admirably applied on the Boer side, Bo strongly lacking on ours. That fact has acquired a fresh significance fron. ah incident ih the life of Joubert, Which has since been recorded, of •which I -was unaivare at the time that I wrote. It has beeh stated, ahd is, I believe, true, though I cannot myself vouch for the fact, that in his younger days joubert served under Stonewall Jackson as a volunteer throughout his great campaigns. If so, that would account for\the fact that I thought I detected a hand that had been trained in- some such school in the management of the Boer forces. Not knowing of Joubert's antecedents, I was inclined to put this down to some Frenoh or German hand. If Joubert, in fact, served in the Shenandoah Valley. and other campaigns under Jackeon, it is quite certain that he Would from that time on have been a close student of the methods of that great commander. No man of so much intelligence who had had that experience could be other. I should Say that, under t-hose circumstances, he would be, knowing his own people and his own country as he doe.?, a much more effective Commander-in-Chief for this War than any French or Gterman officer, though, as to many points, he would no doubt have been glad enough to have theii' assistance. 1 have hot at this moment the army list at hand, and I may be mistaken, but I att nearly sure that Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson has never served Under Lord Roberts before, though he has Uhder Lord Wolse^ .1 ley, who much appreciates his knowledge and capacity. When, theft, I find Lord Roberts appointing to one of the taoit im- ' portaht positions on his headquarter staff an officer personally little known to him, 1 whose special qualificatioh lies in his general knowledge of the expedience of the past of war, and his special knowledge of the American Civil War, with an even more intimate knowledge of the particular career of Stonewall Jackson, I cannot help regarding it as a .very significant circumstance. I '. even think it a decisive pronunoiatoento on i the thesis I piit forward .ome time ago, that what is wanted in this campaign even more ' than in the American campaigns is a strict ' application of the principles of Stonewall ' Jackson. v ' '■ hi i■ ii __»___« „ j