THE BOER ARMIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7433, 20 June 1902, Page 2

THE BOER ARMIES.

The statistics of the Boer surrenders 1 furnished) by Lord Kitchener make it posg sible now to compare the actual strength of the enemy's forces during the past eight months with the British estimates of. them. 6 The contrast is Instructive to a certain >c extent perhaps, but it is chiefly amusing as jr showing the dense ignorance of tie British Government (with regard to the personnel of the Boer armies. In a speech which be sy delivered at the Carlton Club on Nov. 14, 1901, Mr Brodrick, the Secretary of State r- for War, said it was believed that there were £ 10,000 Boers still in the field. Three or d four months afterwards the Imperial aus ' thorities had 1 the grace to apologise for j their mistake, but even their apology U scarcely compensates for the magnitude of their blunder. They were only some 18,000 cut in their calculation! As a ~* I matter of fact,, at the time Mr Brodrick was speaking, tliere were between 27,000 and 28,000 Boers under arms, and probably the larger number was within- tlie mark. _, Tliis total is made up of 9044 kiled s- wounded, captured or surrendered, all -ace- counted for iv Lord Kitchener's weekly _e- • ports from Nov. 21 tifr May 15 inclusive,, c . 16,620 who have yielded up tQueir arms in the Transvaal since the .proclamation of ry peace, and 1780 Cape rebels, who have either surrendered already or are expected , to come in shortly. The discrepancy between the Government estimate and the. 2 a real condition of affairs is explained partly 67 by the incomplete data, at the disposal of the British Intelligence Dep_rtanen.b_ but .3 only partly. This explanation- hardly absolves the British authorities from <*> the responsibility firstly of having . made such a miscalculation, and then 'having given, public utterance to it. It is now possible, also, to gather some idea of the strength of th_ Republio_» armies at the outbreak of the war. In his speech at the Carlton Club, Mr Brodrick £ also mid that- up to that time 42,000 adult 5^ Boers had beeu captured and 11,000 more ' thud beon either killed or woundec- If

ihese figures arrc added to the numbers accounted for since Nov. 21, the result is a ;rand total of something like 80,000. This number is about half-way between the largest and smallest of the many calculations of the burghers' strength, which were mode during the eariy .port of the campaign, .amd although, owing to leakages from the enemy's ranks, loosely-compiled casualty lists and other courses, the task of arriving at a correct computation is well-nigh hopeless, it probably represents a fairly accurate reckoning of the armies which Great Britain was called upon to defeat. Moreover, it is confirmed by official figures published in this morning's papers, and although past experience is not a very convincing testimony to the accuracy of official estimates there is no reason for questioning the correctness of fl.;« l.,c*- sina