There is still nothing decisive to chronicle from the seat
of war, but Lord Roberts is evidently now advancing from Pretoria upon Middelburg just as he advanced from Bloem- fontein on Pretoria. He is advancing, that is, with rapid strides along the Delagoa Bay Railway, and doubtless will not stop till he reaches Koomati Poort. Possibly he may be fighting a big battle while we are writing, but it is more probable that the Boers will do as they did in his previous advances, and always refuse a general action. Meantime Generals Hunter and Rundle are still trying to corner the Boer commandos in the district east and south of Bethlehem. The details of their movements are obscure, but we have no doubt they will in the end prove quite successful. We wish people would be a little less impatient about these last arts of the war. When they read in their history books : Minor operations lasted in the hilly districts for another month or two, but though very trying to the troops they do not deserve to be chronicled in detail,' they do not say, What a terrible position !' or 'How very serious a state of affairs!' but simplyignore the statement and judge of the main event. They must remember that what we are now wit- nessing under the microscope is simply the reality behind that colourless and unimportant paragraph added to the history of every campaign not fought in a Delta.
Previous page
