White manfully takes upon himself the blame for this
misfortune. His portentous blunders were in sending out the party to a
distance and in taking no steps to keep in communication with it or to
support it. The detachment of a small party to a distant point is a
habit of Indian warfare. It is out of place against an enemy of European
race, for the detachment is sure to be destroyed if the enemy has a
capable commander. Every man in the Ladysmith force will have felt on
Tuesday that the commander had make mistakes which he ought not to have
made. The question is what effect this consciousness will have upon the
spirits of the force.

Sir George White was reinforced before and during the action, a
battalion of rifles having arrived in the morning and a party of
bluejackets with heavy quick-firers coming up during the day. Further
reinforcements were sent towards him from the squadron after the action,
so that his force is still about sixteen thousand. If he does not elect
to retreat, a course which might demoralise the troops, he may well be
able to defend Ladysmith until relieved; but the first business of the
troops now on their way out will be to relieve him, and until that has
been arranged for, it is to be feared that Mafeking and Kimberley must
wait.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Thirteen weeks, as we now (March) know from the official
correspondence.]

[Footnote B: I should have said December.]

HOW WEAK POLICY LEADS TO BAD STRATEGY

_November 8th_, 1899

The war is doing us good. It is giving us the beginnings of political
education in a department that has been utterly neglected. It may be
worth while to review the whole situation of to-day, and to ask how the
man in the street can lend a helping hand.

The British Government, primarily representing the people of Great
Britain, has for many years been an affair of party; the dominant idea
of the party leaders has been when out of office to get in, and when in
to stay. The way to manage this was to cajole the man in the street, and
as he was a busy man getting his living and not much concerned about
watching the whole globe, the party leaders made bids for his support;
votes to be distributed on the principle that one man was as good as
another; taxation to be made light for him, and, consequently, as the
money had to be found, heavy for some one else. Each party offered what
it sincerely believed to be for the general good; but the kind of
general