THE SECRET OF GUERILLA WARFARE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7508, 16 September 1902, Page 2

THE SECRET OF GUERILLA WARFARE.

' WILL THE BOERS FlGffi'T AGAIN? The Rev, James Green, chaplain to the Commonwealth troops in "South Africa, where he has spent oyer two years, in a letter to the Sydney "Morning Herald" from Cape Town, 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 Cape Town hotel. So far as I had seen in the Transvaal the Boers were admittedly well beaten and sick of war ; but in Cape Town and district I was amazed to discover more Dutch feeling than ever. This was the subject of our conversation. To Fraser I expressed my surprise. ' " I am not surprised," said he. "Do you know I left Botha's staff a few month* ago to come to Cape Colony with two com* pauions, 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 spay Tie 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 was taught from my youth that an Englishman is the soul of honour I am beginning to doubt it. It is a fact," he continued, "that we 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 be 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, bat stilOi shook his head and asserted that hej_ante_ peace; the Dhßch wanted peace, but there would be no peace whilst rebels were kept in prison. " You have made a good fight of it and ai grand surrender. Everybody admires tha way you have come in and gone baok 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 have fought for another two years. We gave in for the sake of tbe women and! children. Four thousand. burghers we<re slain ; but 20,000 women and children diem the concentration camps. That's why we* surrendered." " Of the 20,000 by far tihe majority were» children carried away by epidemics, measles, etc." He nodded assent. " You always have a good deal of mortality amongst your children, and whati would it have been if we had not oared for them in our camps?" And then I continued' : " You do not mi your casualties reckon the mercenaries who* fought and died' for yc_— the Scandinaviani and the Irish Brigades, the Americans, the Germans and the French." Without pursuing .his further we went on to refer to other things. "I was told," I remarked, "by one of your leading men that you had not more than two months' supplies." " Don't believe it," was the reply ; "we can always 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 get through them." " How?" I asked. "We would station our riflemen to fire oo the blockhouses to either side, then one man would ride hard at the entanglements and. dismounting, cut through tlhem withi wire-cutters. We would follow as quickly as possible, and though both men and horsewould be scratched, and sometimes a few hit, we could gat a commando through at any time." "The man who went first would' have to be a plucky fellow?" " We were never short of brave men," he replied. _.„__. led to the query, "Were all the stories true about the Boer leaders using their sjambok on their men?" "Quite true," the ex-commandant' replied, with a smile. "When we began our guerilla war we broke up all our big commandoes into small ones of about 150 men, with commandants and' a corporal for every ten to fifteen burghers. When we were not fighting' we were allf on an equality, ar.d lived like a happy family, but when fighting begins /there must be authority and obedience. If I wa* 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 was • the disgrace of it that the Boer feared; and the weight of it," he rejoined. "We flogged them as hard as we could." " But a man who had to be sjamboked wouldr not be much help,", I said. "Perhaps he was a crack shot- and we needed him; but, as you say, in the long run 4 these sort are not much good." " An Australian wouldn't stand that, yev know. If an officer with- us flogged a man he might expect ,'tb be shot in the nert fight." " Nonsense," said the Boer ; " human nature is the same. I ; would sjambok a man that did not go. in if I were leading Australians. __c men that need that sort of argument are in the minority, and ii they their leader the otherwould cut them' into mincemeat. That's what we relied on. Your methods are not much different either. I declare on my honour," said Fraser, " that' at Magersfonteinj when your infantry were coming at us again and again, the British pom-poms and maxims were playing on their rear." "That may have been a mistake; mistakes like that do occur in the heat oi battle." "It was no mistake," he said, shrugging his Shoulders, and lifting his hand and eyebrows in the Dutch way. COURAGE OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER. " Now what is your : candid opinion oi the courage of the British^ soldier?" said " 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 twentyfive men andthey would do wonders. , Tomorrow I tokfht have 200, but they are not inclined for fighting, and it is.no good leading them into it." "Your commandoes were often broken up ,r "That is the whole art of guerilla warfare. You have no idea what; a lot of work you can gjet' Out of a few' dozen marksmen. I usfed to hang, on the flanks of your camps and columns, bothering them a lot, bnt when the day came that I was cornered and knew the price I would have to pay if 1 fought, I would dismis!- my men with the understanding th&t we were" to meet again 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 rested." Commandant Fraser thinks that the greatest failures in regard to British 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 reckoned they could get ten miles a day more out of their horses than we could. He thought that if they had had young men a^l through they would have done better. De la Rev is the oldest commandant. He is a welt-preserved, wiry man of fifty-four, Louis Botha is thirty-four, and De Wet is not forty. Many, ef the Boer commandants are from twenty-two to thirty. Kemp, De'la Rey's most brilliant lieutenant, is only twenty-six. Fraser himself is about twenty-seven or twentyeight, and Commandant Bouer, his companion, is not thirty. DEMONSTRA'I-VE PEOPLE. In spite of ex-Commandant Fraser _ fears I don't think the Boers will fight again. The people who are making a lot of noise in this district are the people who have not been in the field. The arrival of the Boer Generals has 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 would have been the strong man of the hour." But perhaps the man of the hour is not far away, and there may be in the person of some unknown country politician a man of broad Imperial sentiments who can rule the English and at the same time manage the ' Dutch, This much is certain, the Afrikander Bond is stronger than ever, but Sir W, Hely Hutchison and Lord Milner are wise men, and 75,000 troop^ are to be left irf the country. ■