21 APRIL 1900, Page 2

On Wednesday the War Office published the official Report of

the operations at Spion Kop, with which we have dealt at length elsewhere. Even making allowance for the terrible difficulty of the art of war, Spion Kop was a muddled business from beginning to end, and must, we fear, bring discredit on all the commanders connected with it. The credit rests with the junior officers and privates, who one and all behaved with splendid gallantry. Lord Roberts's censures on the conduct of the action are just, moderate, and clear, but in result terribly severe. We give the operative paragraph of his despatch verbatim. The failure was, he says, in some measure due to the difficulties of the ground and the commanding positions held by the enemy,—" prob- ably also to errors of judgment and want of administros

tire capacity on the part of Sir Charles Warren. But whatever faults Sir Charles Warren may have committed, the failure must also be ascribed to the disinclination of the officer in supreme command to assert his authority and see that what he thought best was done, and also to the un- warrantable and needless assumption of responsibility by a subordinate officer."