Show WILLIAM DID HELP BRITISH that the kaiser did assist the british in the boer war but not in the manner rianner stated in the london bondon dally telegraph interview Is a statement made as a historical fact by the new york tribune which says that although english newspapers have indulged in a good deal of unfriendly comment apropos of the assertion of the kaisor kaiser that at the moment when the british army was sustaining one disaster after another in the boor war ho he had sent a private letter of warm sympathy to his big grandmother queen victoria along with a 1 confidential memorandum of his views as t to how the defeats might be retrieved yet it is a little known fact that tho the english owe awe him a considerable debt of gratitude for a certain bit of very real assistance which he furnished to them just at that time when gena gene oral eral sir redvers buller in january 1900 occupied drift on the tugela on his way to kop the remark was made by virtually every english newspaper that the former spot was not marked on any available map the london times in particular wrote the absence of accurate maps of the region in which our troops are now moving Is an extraordinary example of the carelessness of our preparations for war northern natal is a notoriously difficult country in which wo iwo had already fought a disastrous campaign and had paid the price of negligence and an d overconfidence years ago yet although it has ha s long been british territory and though our royal engineer corps and staff officers ought long ago to have surveyed every inch of it nothing of the kind has ever been done and there are no largo large scale maps of tho the region in which we are fighting it is perfectly UY true that the english army did not have any maps of this sort dort and was waa as deficient in this respect as the te unfortunate french officers and troops in 1870 when they the 7 found that whereas they knew noth ing of the topography of their own country the germans possessed the most complete acquaintance therewith although no large scale map was possessed py by tho the english or anything jg ap preaching pro aching thereto yet ithe german aerman war department owned one the fruit of careful surveying e exploring ariff and investigation of natal by german staff officers a 91 map in seventy te heets this at the instance of the kaiser and by his direction was loaned to tho the british government by the ber fin war department and sent ont out to south africa for the uso use of the commanding generals there during the remainder of the campaign how handicapped the british commanders had been until that time was shown by tho the fact that the only map upon which they hadbo depend was that carried by a well known english war correspondent front from whom they borrowed r at it it is a pity for tho the sako sake of tho the friendly relations between great britain and germany which are so important to the peace and prosperity of the world that the english secretary of state for war mr hal when lie he denied in the house of commons that any trace existed lit in his department of the plan of campaign contained in the kaisers keisers Kai sers confidential letter to his grandmother queen victoria in january 1900 did not add this fact which is familar to every one of the english officers of the higher grades in the south african war namely that the only large scale map and topographical chart of the british territory in which they were fighting was the one which had been lent to them at the It arsers instance by the german war department at berlin |