OCR Text |
Show W ' I K j GENERAL KITCHENER. Km. ,3 General Lord Kitchener has met with a general L !l ovation from the English people. From King to Hi i ?'i peasant all do him honor. Ho deserves it. He H f!l performed a great work in Egypt, hut that was Hji rf I hut the working out of a slow hut certain mathe- H V,'? matical problem. He knew exactly the force in HB'I' .-"'j front of him and planned to meet it with a force H;f';ji so much superior that it would not only he broken HHr i ' ut crushed, and BO patiently for seven or eight K,i 'J years carried on the work to complete solution. B 'X'n But in South Africa there was a different state m .fid, mi of affairs entirely. M Ifp- j1 In Egypt his was a small but perfectly disci- B V ' f plined ' force, armed with vastly superior equip- M 'siU ti ment, against which the brave but undisciplined M , f and poorly armed foe dashed as the wave dashes m, '' " upon a rocky headland, only to be shattered. m ''&' In South Africa hc ha(1 th0 host, but it was m ftfl l ' trained only on the European models of years ago, K lf I i and a great part of it was made up of simple, Eng- H'-ji' lish raw recruits, which were simply helpless be- K,4f ' fore the foe to be dealt with thei'e; a foe brought Hh !i J up half in the open air, brave as lions and hard as P ; I ' iron, indifferent to exposure or fatigue or the food w ;j : they ate, and moreover trained marksman and Hi j.1 ' 1 armed with the most complete and destructive Hjv i u modern weapons. More, they were on their native H'n '. s heath; they knew every place of defense, every HiH j j"; spring, very patch of good pasturage for their !') fl,'j animals, and were in possession of every natural If it ! ' ' advantage from the first. IfJfjj ! Then Lord Kitchener's base was seven hundred iljf' miles from the chief theater of operations and all rjjjjj that long line had to be guarded, for the life of Hfllu fi' kls army depended upon keeping open communica- Hljjfn tion with the coast. H k g J i That ho had the ability and endurance to finally Hfi jjjj win was a mighty achievement and he is entitled lf"f(r ifr to a11 the honors England can bestow upon him. Hip : fI He will doubtless have control of the armies of Hi' 'isj! Great Britain now and it is safe to predict that he ;t 1 u will at once proceed to reorganize them and train HJL ! them up to a point that will amount to almost a HUrl! transformation. Inefficient officers will be fired Hill' i ' ' out, and the daily drill will be to prepare tho men HfLc ,,. for a possible foe like that encountered in South li'''li Africa. Moreover the military schools of Great HHf ''1' Britain will be overhauled and placed on a new HlggL j basis and in three or four years, the British army liM ')u wi e a tlanEerous one to try conclusions with. HJ&v' The South African lesson has been a most costly IHfL I one and Lor(i Kitchener will see that it will not w L; ;"j be lost on Great Britain's army. HwfL; r U |