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Show A REAL GENIUS FOR WAR. On the 12th day of last October the world at large looked in disdain, on the military prowess of the little Dutch Republic in South Africa. Indeed, rhere were not wanting those who were quite convinced: that the war would fnpe its culmination within thirty days. And yet within ninety days the Boer, who was so disdainfully looked upon by other and stronger nations has come into the first rank of military strategy and tactics. It is not too much to say that he has developed an inborn genius for war. The sitand which he has taken, and the success which he has achieved against the greatest of! modern nations, stamps him as un- i ' equalled and unexcelled in every act of I' war. .. Speaking of this phase of the .Boer character Ilerr Konig, the German mil- itary historian, saye: f "The Boers have shown tactics which may compel all the military powers to revise the tactical instructions for their armies. They have shown how the . strategical offensive can be combined vith the tactical defensive. ' This Boerj war la amazing so far, but It would certainly be the most amazing war in history if it was the means of teaching their business even to the great strategists strat-egists of the Continent. , Two months ago the Transvaal burgher was the most ignorant man in the world in the English papers- today, in the same quarter, he is about the most finished product, in the way of brains, of the nineteenth century."' Commenting on Herr Konig's statement state-ment above, the New York Sun very pointedly observes: "Point is given to the severity of the last sentences of Herr Konig's comment by the way in which the British commanders, com-manders, after each defeat, have invariably in-variably magnified the Boer forces op- posed to them. "Were their estimates accurate, the Boers should have not less than 75,000 men in the field, a very different figure to that put forward by the war party in England when urging the government to make war. The chief elements of the Boer successes are their mobility, the skilful use of the repeating rifle, and the able manner in j which their leaders, whether native or foreign, have applied the guiding principles prin-ciples of the military art to locj.1 circumstances; cir-cumstances; and the skilful vay in which, having wrested the initiative fromthe enemy at the start, they have preserved it throughout the campaign." It is not rash to assume that such a people are eventually destined to make their impress on the affairs of the world; nor is it raeh to assume that Bismarck was far astray when he said that the British ambition would find its grave in South Africa, ! . A I |