Boers for
the one great success on which they were to some extent justified in
counting, and makes an end of their plan of campaign.

A few days will be needed to repair the railway from the Tugela to
Ladysmith, and to build a temporary railway bridge at Colenso. By that
time the force of Sir George White and Sir Redvers Buller will be
rested, refreshed, and reorganised, forming an army of from thirty-five
thousand to forty thousand men. In the Free State Lord Roberts has
probably forty-five thousand. The collapse of the Boer invasion of Cape
Colony points to the early reopening of the railways from Naauwpoort and
Sterkstrom to Norval's Pont and Bethulie, the repair of the railway
bridges over the Orange River, and the concentration at Bloemfontein of
sixty thousand men, with the railway from the Orange River working and
guarded behind them, possibly with a new line of railway from Modder
River or Kimberley to Bloemfontein as an additional resource. The
advance of Lord Roberts with sixty thousand men to the Vaal River must
open to Sir Redvers Buller the passes of the Drakensberg range from Van
Reenen's to Lang's Nek, and between the two forces the Boer army must be
crushed. The Boers may abandon the attempt at resistance by battle, and
may confine themselves to the defence of Pretoria, to raids on the
British communications, and to the various devices of irregular warfare.
But the British forces will shortly have at their disposal as many
mounted men as the Boers, so that even irregular warfare can but lead
to their destruction in detail.

The only hope for the Boer cause now rests upon the intervention of
other Powers, and the crucial moment for the British Government is at
hand. That the Nation is resolved to brook no intervention is absolutely
certain, and that it is ready to make great sacrifices and great efforts
to resist any attempt at intervention seems equally beyond doubt. Has
the Government appreciated either the needs of the situation or the
temper of the Nation? Intervention if offered will be proposed suddenly,
and foreign action, if it is contemplated at all, will follow upon the
heels of the rejection of the proposals. If, then, fleets have still to
be completed for sea, plans of campaign to be matured and adopted, and a
Volunteer Army to be improvised, the great war will find us as unready
and as much surprised as did the supposed small war five months ago.

The measures required are, first of all, to