THE INVASION OF THE FREE STATE.
WE write before we can obtain knowledge of the results of Lord Roberts's advance into the Free State, but taken altogether the prospects seem most promising. At any rate, the moment is an opportune one for reviewing the military situation as a whole. In Natal everything depends upon how long Ladysmith can hold out, and this again depends upon the amount of food still in the place. That the enemy will not now take Lady- smith by storm seems certain. Again, we do not think that Ladysmith will succumb owing to the garrison being prostrated by disease. No doubt the place is not healthy, but there is nothing like a plague, and garrisons do not yield from ill-health. As we have said, then, it is a case of food. But unless we are mistaken the food will certainly last another fortnight, and most probably another three or even four weeks. Therefore there is still time for the effects of General Roberts's advance to be felt and for Lady- smith to be relieved indirectly, before the grim necessity for cutting their way out is presented to the garrison. That they will lay down their arms and allow themselves to he made prisoners we absolutely refuse to believe. In addi- tion there is still the chance that General Buller may be able to force his way through, or, at any rate, to seize a position which will enable him to hold out a helping hand to Sir George White. We need not, therefore, assume with the pessimists that Ladysmith must be counted as already lost. No doubt its fate hangs in the balance, but not till another two weeks have passed will it be reasonable to give up hope.
On the southern frontier the position is moat curious. We hear of little or no activity being displayed by General G-ata.cre, but round Rensburg what was formerly General French's command is being very closely pressed upon by the Colesberg Boers, who have been very heavily reinforced. So hard pressed, indeed, has been the attack that our soldiers have been obliged to fall back at all points. As long, however, as our troops do not let themselves be surrounded, this advance by the Boers is by no means a matter for alarm or depression. In fact, the further we can lure them into the Colony in this direction the better. Every mile they move forward makes greater the risk they are running of being cut off by a flank movement from Orange River Station to Fauresmith and Trompsburg. This flank movement seems, in fact, to have already begun, and we shall not be surprised to hear very shortly of large developments. Still more important is the great movement undertaken by Lord Roberts. This movement is, of course, a great deal more than an effort to relieve Kimberley. That would only be an incidental result of its success. Its main object is evidently the seizure of Jacobsdal and, if possible, the capture there of the Boer stores from which the force round Kimberley has been supplied. If our readers will look at a map they will realise the strategic conditions of the movement. Jacobsdal lies in the triangle formed by the junction of the Riet River and the Modder River, which junction takes place at our camp at Modder. What Lord Roberts appears to have done was to send a body of his troops, under General French, some twenty miles down the Riet River to Dekil's Drift. There they crossed, and hurried at once across country about twenty-five miles till they reached the Modder River, where they seized and occupied several drifts. Thus French's force is now stretched across the land between the rivers, and bars the direct retreat of the Boers from Jacobsdal. The Boers, therefore, have two courses open to them. They must either attempt to defend Jacobsdal—a very difficult task, considering their situation between the rivers—or else they must evacuate Jacobsdal, and evacuate by a movement away from Bloem- fontein and the Free State. But the evacuation of Jacobsdal, it would seem probable, must also mean the evacuation of the position at Magersfontein. It may be, however, that there will be a severe struggle on the part of the Boers to regain the positions they have lost, and as we are learning, nothing is so uncertain as the fate of battle. Still, as far as one can see, it looks as if in a very few days the road would be open into the Free State, and with no very serious obstacle between General Roberts and Bloemfontein.
The actual invasion of the Free State suggests many very interesting problems. It was generally sup- posed in the autumn that our troops would follow the railway line, and therefore advance via Colesberg. It seems possible, however, now that the advance will be along the main road from Jacobsdal to Bloemfontein,—a distance of not much more than one hundred miles. It is possible that a field railway may be laid as the troops advance. There are not any rivers or mountains to cross, and if the railway could be laid at two miles a day it might not be far from Bloemfontein at the end of six weeks. Possibly, however, this would not be considered worth wbile, and all the railway enterprise available will be devoted to repairing and reopening the line between Kimberley and Mafeking. The distance is very great, but if some seven thousand men could be added to the force now in Mafeking, and to the troops under Colonel Plumer, which will soon, we hope, join them, Mafeking might be made the base for a direct advance upon Pretoria. Nothing would more quickly end the war than an advance from that side, and we shall be very much surprised if Lord Roberts has not all along kept this possibility in view. Even if no attempt is made to lay a railway from Jacobsdal to Bloemfontein we may be sure that railway communication will not be neglected, and that every effort will be made to seize Springfontein, the very important junction within the Free State, where the lines eta Colesberg and aid Albert Junction meet. When once we have got Springfontein, and the country behind us has been cleared of the enemy, the regular railway route to Bloemfontein is clear.
We may end by a word as to the political aspects of the invasion of the Free State. We trust that every effort will be made to reassure the inhabitants, to explain to them that we have no sort of intention of depriving them of their liberties, and to make them realise that as soon as the military period is concluded the rights of self-government and of individual liberty will be as securely and as liberally enjoyed as they ever were in the Free State and far more securely and far more liberally than they have been in the Transvaal. We know this so well that we hardly think it worth reiterating, but let us remember that the Free Staters do not know it. They have had the poison of anti-British prejudice so persistently instilled into their minds for the last five or six years, that they really believe we are coming to enslave them, or at any rate to treat them as they have seen the Outlanders treated at Johannesburg,—i.e., made into white Kaffirs. The sooner we begin the attempt to disabuse them of these notions the better it will be for them, for us, and for the peace of South Africa.
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