Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/227

 1999., British Hopes Disappointed* [319

looked tightly across that stationary interval to a triumphant march upon Pretoria. And when the participation of the Orange Free State in the straggle, if it broke oat, became practically certain, there were leading organs which treated the fact as to be regretted, no doubt, in the interests of the Free State itself, bat as actually tending to facilitate the rapidly successful conclusion of the campaign. It would throw open to our troops a territory suited to their style of warfare, of which otherwise it would have been necessary to respect the neutrality, and. in a word, the Bloemfontein road would be distinctly the most convenient for the British advance upon the capital of the Transvaal.

Rough indeed, therefore, was the awakening to which the British public and, not less certainly, the British Government were subjected by the actual course of events. Within ten days after the prorogation it was realised that for some weeks to come not only the outlying garrisons of Kimberley and Mafeking but the principal British army in South Africa, that under Sir George White in Natal, had to face actual beleaguerment by the numerous and well-equipped forces of invading Boers. The bright hopes of triumph, even in the initial stage of the war, which had been raised by the brilliantly successful attacks on Boer positions at Dundee and Elandslaagte, were soon seen to have been vain. The abandonment of Dundee by the force which had been commanded by General Symons, leaving the wounded in the hands of the enemy, gave the British public a sharp intimation of the realities of part of the situation. The curious failure of the Boers to interfere with the column under afforded matter for congratulation ; and the gallant action fought by a portion of Sir George White's command at Rietfontein, following on that of Elandslaagte, essentially facilitated- General Yule's junction with the main body. But the news of the sortie of October 30, the doubtful value of its general results, and the lamentable loss by surrender, after long fighting, to an overwhelming Boer force, of two battalions of British infantry and a battery of artillery at Nicolson's Nek, produced wide- spread humiliation and anxiety. Indeed it was evident that if the naval guns had not arrived in the nick of time from Durban the position of the whole Ladysmith garrison, in presence of the powerful siege artillery of the Boers, would have become speedily untenable. Even so, the situation of Sir George White's gallant force, from which all but the most fitful and uncertain communication with the outer world was soon cut off, could not be contemplated without grave uneasiness and a certain sense of hurt to the national pride. The admirably vigorous and resourceful defence improvised and maintained up to the end of the year by Kimberley (into which Mr. Cecil Rhodes had thrown himself), under Colonel Kekewich, and Mafeking, under Colonel Baden-Powell, excited delight and
 * General Yule in the earlier part of its retirement on Ladysmith