The Spion Kop despatches were issued on Thursday. They are
not quite so sensational as many people expected, but certain of the unpublished portions of despatches which were previously printed in part will be read with considerable astonishment. In Lord Roberts's covering despatch when forwarding the Spion Kop papers we now find a passage strongly censuring Sir Redvers Buller, when he thought the Spion Kop operations were being badly conducted, for not himself intervening and insisting that they should be carried out as he wished. A. report from Sir Redvers Buller is published for the first time, in which he makes very strong comments on Sir Charles Warren's management before and after Spion Kop. " I saw no attempt on the part of General Warren either to grapple with the situation or to command his force himself. By the 23rd I calculated that the enemy, who were about six hundred strong on the 16th, were not less than fifteen thousand, and General White confirmed this estimate. We had really lost our chance by Sir C. Warren's slowness. He seems to me a man who can do well what be can do himself, but who cannot command, as he can use neither his staff nor subordinates. I can never employ him again on an independent command." Sir Redvers Buller adds :—" On the 19th I ought to have assumed command myself ; I saw that things were not going well,—indeed, every one saw that. I blame myself now for not having done so. I did not, because I thought that if I did I should discredit General Warren in the estimation of the troops; and that if I were shot, and he had to withdraw across the Tugela, and they had lost confidence in him, the consequences might be very serious."
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