Though on Friday morning no news of actual hostilities had
been received, the military situation is sufficiently clear To begin with, the two Boer States are encircled by a number of British commands. There is the main body in Natal, of about fifteen thousand men in all, stretched across the frontier from Ladysmith to Dundee and holding strongly entrenched positions. 'There' is a small bit efficient force at Aliwal
North on the Orange River,—i.e., on the border of the Free State and the Colony. There is a force at Kimberley entrenched and provided 'with guns, and, finally, there is Colonel Baden-Powell's command at Mafeking, and another local force further north on the Rhodesian border. At all these points we are faced with Boer forces superior in number to ours (though certainly not in efficiency), and at Mafeking greatly superior in number. We may, then, at any moment expect to hear of attacks on any or all of these positions, besides raids over the border at open points. In all probability the first actual fighting will be at Mafeking, for it is reported that Colonel Baden-Powell, no doubt quite wisely, has moved out of the town, in order to anticipate the enemy's attack.
