VOLUNTEER DRILL AND TACTICS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR.1 Sri,—Yes, you are quite right in what you say regarding the future of Volunteer drill and tactics. You might have gone a little further, and asked whether it would not be as well if the military were to meet the Boer with something like an adaptation of his own methods. It would be very ungrateful on the part of a Colonist to send home hasty or partial criticisms of the methods of those brave men whose lives are so unhesitatingly given that South Africa may be saved from Boer domination. But do not these valuable lives demand that the sacrifice shall not be made without the sternest necessity ? Colonial Volunteers' lives too—i e., the lives of men who have hitherto, as with the home Volun- teers, followed the ordinary avocations of breadwinning- ought these not to be considered? Now, while such private correspondence as gets through from Lady- smith or comes to us from Eatcourt, &c., speaks in the nighest terms of the dash of our officers and the sterling bravery of their men,—of the methods by which the men are handled and of the careless way in which officers risk their lives there are very grave doubts expressed. Colonial men are no cowards, but on more than one occasion their leaders have flatly refused to tackle a kopje in the way the order set forth. The reply of one was to this effect : " If General will allow me to attack the position in our own way, I will guarantee to carry it, but I will not take men to certain death with the least possible chance of taking the position." This war is going to be a big thing. The causes, as you know, go back far into the past. We are (I speak as an Englishman rather than a Colonist), as with Ireland, reaping in one bitter harvest the crop sown with both hands by the Colonial Office of days gone by; the foes et origo of the whole being the disregard of Colonial opinion where Colonial questions are concerned. In 1854 we gave over to Boer role the Orange Free State, converted a multitude of loyal Colonists into enemies (their children are to-day fighting against us), and rained every commercial interest in the sovereignty. But for their union with the Free State the Transvaal difficulty, had it ever occurred, would have been over in a month. In 1883 we allowed the Boers to take possession of the fairest portion of the recently pacified Zulu- land, and so Natal has the enemy on both sides of her upper districts. The neglect to obtain possession of Delagoa Bay at the time that the Portuguese regarded it as of little value is telling fearfully upon the present war. Supplies of all sorts (including men) are reported as passing through Lourenco Marques, and it is difficult to see how it can be stopped.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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